LED Headlights

Michael Myers · 1 Jan 2025 at 17:26

Does anyone else here have an issue with how bright LED headlights are in newer cars these days? i daily an old Audi A3 so have the candle bright headlights, i find that being so low I'm always getting dazzled by newer bigger cars with LED lights, either in my mirror or oncoming.

Am i just getting old? I'm thinking about buying a bigger car just to avoid some of the blinding lol. if you cant beat em, join em...

tom_e · 1 Jan 2025 at 17:30

Is it time to ban LED Headlights

Wonder what people's thoughts are on this article: https://www.goodwood.com/grrc/columnists/john-simister/2018/4/john-simister-why-led-headlights-are-dangerous/ John Simister: Why LED headlights are dangerous Headlights. Have those on new cars become too bright? They have, according to the...

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Michael Myers · 1 Jan 2025 at 17:31

ah thanks will have a read, can close this

Nemiyen · 1 Jan 2025 at 17:32

Absolutely, yeah! Although some cars have those matrix lights where they should swap between dipped and high beam etc when no cars are coming. My car has this and I thought it would be a gimmick so never turned it on.

Anyway, I tried it for a couple of days as I drive down a non lit dark road and low and behold it's as crap as I expected. When no cars were around me the beam stayed low and as soon as I could see cars coming towards me it switched to high beam!

Maybe it wasn't blinding them as it was doing its "matrixy" thing, but it looked like it was so I knocked it off and haven't used it since.

My guess is most cars implement this crap and people turn it on and don't think about it.

Jonnycoupe · 1 Jan 2025 at 17:35

You have matrix lights but don’t use them?

Wow

D-Ranged · 1 Jan 2025 at 17:40

Nemiyen said:
Absolutely, yeah! Although some cars have those matrix lights where they should swap between dipped and high beam etc when no cars are coming. My car has this and I thought it would be a gimmick so never turned it on.

Anyway, I tried it for a couple of days as I drive down a non lit dark road and low and behold it's as crap as I expected. When no cars were around me the beam stayed low and as soon as I could see cars coming towards me it switched to high beam!

Maybe it wasn't blinding them as it was doing its "matrixy" thing, but it looked like it was so I knocked it off and haven't used it since.

My guess is most cars implement this crap and people turn it on and don't think about it.

My 2014 e63 AMG had lights that would change angle when it detected an oncoming car, and I never once had someone flash at me. My 2014 BMW 5 series does not have them, and I get flashed all the time.

I have certainly not noticed any newer cars blinding me other than when they are coming up a hill I am going down.

No matter what you do, there isn't much that's going to change that.

To answer the question, no I don't think they should be banned, they light up the roads better than halogen, and don't blind me anymore than a halogen in the same scenarios as above.

Dangerous Dave · 1 Jan 2025 at 17:43

Sounds more like highbeam assist which on older cars is pretty poor.

I’ve used full Matrix lights on a few cars and they have been superb they don’t just switch low beam to high beam they change the pattern/level of the lights and don’t dip with a oncoming car they black out the lights from hitting it but keep the extended range on your side of the road.