Is it time to ban LED Headlights

These led matrix lights do seem like an unnecessary innovation. My car is very low and I figured that occasional insanely bright headlights were the result of my low eyeline crossing an SUV headlight beam, but maybe it's these new headlights.
 
Clarkey said:
I have the icon adaptive lights on my BMW and I wouldn't say they are that great. It shuts off fairly large areas of the beam and they constantly move around. Driving on winding country roads it often feels like you are driving into a black hole while the peripheral is lit up brightly. Its works OK on straight A roads but on smaller or twistier roads I often choose to turn it off.
Led lights on the whole are good but I still struggle to see well in wet conditions, a problem that I don't find nearly as bad with boggo reflector halogens.
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Selective yellow lights are surprisingly more effective in rain, mist, and fog. You don’t get so much of the wall of light reflected back at you. The yellow seems to cut through it much better.
 
Definitely needs to be a ban on super bright LED headlights, and if these 'adaptive' systems are used to justify keeping the super bright LED headlights then there needs to be a proper design standard that they have to meet. Having done a fair bit of night driving recently I'm sick and tired of being blinded by oncoming cars not bothering to dip their full beams / 'adaptive' systems not working (or in some cases possibly just having ludicrously bright dipped beams), or having the whole of my car lit up from behind by following cars and my mirrors rendered useless by the glare.

Seems to be an issue with various makes of car but have to say range rovers seem to be the worst offenders in my recent experience. Their lights seem to be even brighter than some other systems, and if they do have some kind of 'adaptive' system then it works even less reliably.
 
Scuzi said:
Selective yellow lights are surprisingly more effective in rain, mist, and fog. You don’t get so much of the wall of light reflected back at you. The yellow seems to cut through it much better.
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Yep, the lower kelvin of halogen will penetrate fog and rain much better. The blue part of the spectrim is the problem, you can see clearer in low light when you reduce that (which is why night driving glasses are yellow). Proper fog lights are yellow as well.
 
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Nasher said:
Yep, the lower kelvin of halogen will penetrate fog and rain much better. The blue part of the spectrim is the problem, you can see clearer in low light when you reduce that (which is why night driving glasses are yellow). Proper fog lights are yellow as well.
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I had read that, and fog lights are low on a car to penetrate under the fog (although that bit might be an old wives tale). No reason why footlights can't be yellow leds though (assuming cars currently still use bulbs).
 
theone8181 said:
I had read that, and fog lights are low on a car to penetrate under the fog (although that bit might be an old wives tale). No reason why footlights can't be yellow leds though (assuming cars currently still use bulbs).
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They could use yellowish LEDs, but people now think everything has to be as white as possible. Even though it reflects off everything and blinds the whole street.
 
theone8181 said:
I had read that, and fog lights are low on a car to penetrate under the fog (although that bit might be an old wives tale). No reason why footlights can't be yellow leds though (assuming cars currently still use bulbs).
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As I drive a lot at night fog can be weird - it often sits in a bank at varying heights above the road surface, extending different heights upwards. Sometimes I've been driving in vans or my pickup where I can see over the top of it while regular cars are engulfed or vice versa it sits a few feet off the ground level with good clearance for those in lower vehicles but not those in taller, etc.
 
I find the Laserrlights on my car work well, I have been flashed about 3x since Owning it (Feb this year) and each time was when I was going over a bump/low hill and people possibly thought I had flashed them due to the angle (but they weren't on full as it had already switched that section to low), not flashed any more than in other cars in similar situations on low beam.
 
Laser won’t work when any lights around, streetlights or below 50mph on the Range Rover Velar, so not sure how you can blind people unless the control criteria is looser on your car?
 
Nasher said:
All JDM cars have yellow fogs, they still do. They realise that white bulbs in fogs are pointless.
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based on legislation not actually requiring front lights in the Uk the effectiveness of any sort of fog light to see with is debatable. The purpose is to be seen anyway. I can’t recall seeing a white bulb either.
 
Jonnycoupe said:
Laser won’t work when any lights around, streetlights or below 50mph on the Range Rover Velar, so not sure how you can blind people unless the control criteria is looser on your car?
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It isn't the laser/full beams hitting them, it's just the low beam when going over the bump/brow of the hill - I have found the system itself tends to work very well with recognising vehicles (small or large).
 
I drive to work at 5:30 in the morning so its dark. I'm a relatively new driver (only passed a few months ago) but the amount of cars I see on the road with lights bright enough to make me have to look away/squint is stupid. Also following cars that make my mirrors pointless as I can't see anything due to the amount of glare. Surely its not legal to be able to be bright enough to make other drivers unable to see anything.
 
MatsyLR said:
I drive to work at 5:30 in the morning so its dark. I'm a relatively new driver (only passed a few months ago) but the amount of cars I see on the road with lights bright enough to make me have to look away/squint is stupid.
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Having been driving at night for years I was starting to think it was my eyes - but it isn't. There seems to be a lot of newer vehicles with terrible headlights when it comes to them coming towards you.
 
Has anyone used night driving glasses before? If so what are your experience of them? I am tempted to get a pair to see if they help. Even yellow tinted is a mixed bag of reviews!
 
I find it is mainly SUVs and Vans with super bright lights that cause problems as I sit quite low in the car.

Don't think a car has been a problem for me much.
 
MatsyLR said:
I drive to work at 5:30 in the morning so its dark. I'm a relatively new driver (only passed a few months ago) but the amount of cars I see on the road with lights bright enough to make me have to look away/squint is stupid. Also following cars that make my mirrors pointless as I can't see anything due to the amount of glare. Surely its not legal to be able to be bright enough to make other drivers unable to see anything.
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I suspect its due to the old limit of 35 or 55w halogens, basically means any brightness led will do.
 
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