The last part: it can work like that, with a transition period
Comment on Why have we as a society just accepted the increasingly blinding bright lights of cars?
just_another_person@lemmy.world 1 day ago
We haven’t. Many states have new laws on the books about this issue, and others on the horizon. The issue is that they approved at one point, so there will most likely be a grandfather clause for existing ones on the road because you can’t force car manufacturers to go back and recall all these things to be retroactively compliant with a new law at cost to them. Not how laws work.
Sheldan@lemmy.world 1 day ago
FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 1 day ago
You can ban the sale of super high power bulbs, though. all of the bright headlamps fail (even LEDs, eventually…) and they simply get replaced with compliant bulbs.
blargh513@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
It is less about the output in lumens of the lamp, but more about the angle and color temperature.
In most cars, the difference between regular headlight operation and “brights” has nothing to do with the output, it’s about the angle of the beams. Of course, when you angle the headlights up so you can see farther down the road, now you also point them at oncoming drivers eyes.
The scourge of “blue” headlights amplifies the problem. They’re no brighter, but they are more uncomfortable to stare down.
In most cars, there are a variety of ways to fine-tune the angle of the beams with often little more than a screwdriver. The problem is that most people have no idea that they need to be adjusted. This is why regular inspections are important as well as some sort of standards that can be applied across a wide variety of cars.
The reality is that correcting poor angle on headlights is a trivial task, should only take a few moments. Additionally, most modern headlight systems are active and can adjust the angle by pointing the lamp down or using shutters or individual LEDs to change the angle or beam pattern. Eventually, this will just be an irritating thing of the past, but it will take a number of years before every GM truck and SUV is off the road as well as a lot of current Hyundai/Kia products (anecdotally observed by me to be the worst offenders).
Ice@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
It gets worse when you combine super LED brights with matrix headlights that are marketed to “allow the high beams to remain on even with oncoming traffic”.