Comment on Why have we as a society just accepted the increasingly blinding bright lights of cars?
DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 1 day ago
We used to be a proper country.
The auto industry lobbied to deregulate headlights, and of course, they got what they wanted. Ostensibly, it was to allow for more aerodynamic designs. Of course, the real reason was to have a proprietary part that often needed replacement so they could charge hundreds of dollars directly for something that used to be cheap and standardized.
Ultimately, though, I blame the systematic dismantling of our public education. Basic values of citizenship used to be taught in public schools, and most kids grew up to be fairly decent. That’s not as common anymore.
What’s funny is that we’ve actually incorrectly regulated headlights in the US. It’s the only example I can think of off the top of my head where deregulation might help.
We’ve banned euro-style dynamic lights that can carve out dim spots for oncoming traffic on the fly.
(Of course this doesn’t preclude other additional regulation that we do need about angle and things of that nature.)
DireTech@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
They lobbied to deregulate it because they were only allowed to use one specific design. That’s why until the Ford Taurus every car had the same round headlights.
We need laws against the current stupidity, but can you imagine the waste if we were still forced to use one specific incandescent bulb everywhere?
Soggy@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Switch to one specific LED bulb instead. (Or two! Your choice of circle or rectangle.)
toddestan@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
There was actually four different standard designs. You had the rectangular lights which came as either a 4x6" quad configuration, or the larger 5x7"design with one light on each side. Then there was the 5 3/4" round lights which were also a quad configuration, and the 7" round lights with one on each side. Prior to 1975 there was only the round designs and prior to 1958 when the quad 5 3/4" light configuration were allowed, the only legal headlight was the 7" round design, which itself dated back to 1939.
The reason for the standardization in 1939 was that similar to today, every car had different lights in different configurations, though the main problem then was finding replacement lights when they inevitably burned out or got damaged.
The first car with composite headlights was actually the Ford Thunderbird, but the Taurus is one everyone noticed.