To be happy about this...re headlight glare..link attached

@SodOffbacktoaibu but if I don't, then they drive towards me flashing furiously over and over...which dazzles me too and everyone behind me! I do it once to acknowledge their flash so they don't flash again, and also so they can see I am in fact driving on dipped beams and there's not much else I can do about it in the moment.

It hasn't happened in quite a while, now that I think about it - not since it was last serviced - so maybe DH asked the garage to sort the lights last time it was in. But it is due its MOT so I will ask them to sort.

We also live in a hilly country. One of our worst junctions sits on a slope in all directions and it's awful.

@Xiaoxiong I hear what you're saying but there's no point in you flashing back at people just to prove a point. You'll be dazzling them more!

LED streetlights are affecting wildlife too.
I appreciate the councils have to save money but the old sodium orange lights were better for walking and driving (more contrast) and wildlife. I've never cycled at night but guess the orange lights were nicer to cycle under.

Yes it's also positioning. Very few people seem to know they should adjust their headlights depending on their load, or they do and just don't bother.
I live in a hilly city, when you meet these lights at the brow of a hill I might as well have a blindfold on for all I can see!

Welcome news indeed. Can we ban SUVs as well as bright white lights?

@Chiseltip is absolutely spot on. The units are often sealed and have to be replaced in their entirety at ludicrous costs, some we’ve had at work are over £1000.
This has also driven the rise in headlight thefts, with cars being opened like can openers to have them stolen.

I feel so angry when in winter I am blinded by the lights on these lumbering SUVs etc. There have been so many times on smaller roads when I have had to slow to a crawl - dangerous in itself in traffic- because they mean I just cannot see the road ahead.

It feels like arrogant bullying of smaller vehicles, so has been really interesting reading this- seemingly many drivers of higher vehicles genuinely do not realise the problems they’re causing for smaller cars, & the danger this poses, or even if they do are unable to change the set up. It’s not - as I previously suspected - that they just are arrogant ——- who don’t give a ——— about other road users.

I have reached the stage of considering switching on my full beam lights next time one of these behemoths blinds me. Just to see if that helps me see the road ahead. I don’t know if it would, though, or if it would just create more glare - which is really not what I want.

They are also catastrophic for the environment. LED headlights have a real world lifespan of around 10 years. At that point it will either be impossible to source replacments, or they will cost ao much that the car is a write off. The auto industry are already preparing for a "LED storm" around 2030, when literally millions of cars will have their headlights fail around the same time. It is already acknowledged and accepted by the auto industry that spare parts will not be made available in sufficient numbers to save the premature scrapping of these cars.

This includes your "green" EV. People only talk about the battery. The reality is, it's the headlights will be the catastrophic failure that will cause your EV to be scrapped, not the battery.

All new cars have a life span dictated policy makers abject stupidity. They insisted on sealed headlights, they never gave a thought to what happens when they fail.

And no, you can't fit secondhand hand units, you can't get them from other scrapped cars either, they all have to be coded by the main dealers. They won't do this for parts that they haven't fitted themselves.

This is the real story that should be front page news.

I should add that my current car switch will only go one way - i.e. make it less further forward if car has a heavy load - but my old car's one could go in either direction, so assume some out there still do?

Or perhaps people don't know it exists and don't adjust it for passengers and load weight in the boot etc? So it's too high?

Unfair you are having a pop at @OhDear111

They didnt make the lights or legislate that car makers had to make them that way.

@OhDear111 purchased a car with them as standard - like many people do with many cars. Your anger is sorely misplaced.

Also, to claim "everyone" is blinded is factually flat out wrong. Sure, some/few/majority of people could be affected, but not "everyone". 🙄

About bloody time. Let´s hope this is the beginning of the end of those headlights that can compete with Wembley Stadium lights. I was driving behing someone (in a traffic jam) at night and his rear lights were blinding me! I think he had the rear fog lights on and that exacerbated the problem!

Our car (a Hyundai) has a switch to adjust (level) the headlight beam level according to the number of the passengers and loading weight in the luggage area. The higher the number of the switch position, the lower the headlight beam level - and there is a reminder in the user manual to always keep the head light beam at the proper levelling position, or headlights may dazzle other road users. It's not a very visible switch, to me when I'm actually sitting in the car, although you can see it clearly before getting in .

I assume most cars have them but could be wrong? I do wonder if people either don't know they have one or have incorrectly adjusted it so that the main beam goes further forward ( because the angle is more up the way, than level - or have correctly adjusted it and then forgotten to put it back?

Absolutely does not sound silly. I feel the same in my old/small car. It's very intimidating and dangerous.

Whilst blinding everyone else on the road!

This "I'm alright Jack" attitude is exactly what the issue. I'm glad you can see everything crystal clear, unfortunately your lights will be harming others.

This is good news. I now avoid driving at night for this reason.

Me too!! Kinda glad it’s not just me 😅

Brilliant, I'm sick of being blinded by these lights. Many newer bigger cars have them and they really hit at the wrong place when they are behind as well as oncoming.

But when you're dazzled from an oncoming car you can't see shit, certainly not a cyclist or pedestrian! There must be a happy medium

I agree. We adjusted our lights after we bought this car as we kept getting flashed. On the MOT they put them back to straight ahead. I didn't realise and first time driving it in the dark started getting flashed again. Not sure why they did it, they weren't dipped too low , I was visible and could still see properly in the dark, just wasn't dazzling everyone ahead!

@HelplessSoul Yes, it was not that long ago we didn’t want glow worm lights! I certainly don’t. My new car lights are a huge improvement on the 2011 car I still own. It’s not glare, it’s accuracy and allows the driver to see cyclists in front of them on their side of the road and pedestrians.

@Stormwhatnow

"I don't know what the hell car manufacturers were thinking when they switched from the perfectly functional warm white to the horrific neon white."

Your anger is misplaced.

OEMs change their headlight solutions based on the regulations issued by Government policies.

The same twats doing this pointless "review" are the same ones that previously argued for and mandated for more powerful headlights. OEMs simply complied otherwise they'd be out of business.

Does no one actually consider it’s the angle of the dipped beam? Thats the major issue and this should be part of the Mot test. It’s fairly easy to fail a car based on too bright lights and angle of lights.

I certainly don’t agree vast numbers of dipped headlights are made to glare. That’s simply not true. Retro fitting and poor maintenance and an aging population are the biggest issues. I’ve a very modern electric car with multi beam lights. I’ve never been flashed and they dip automatically - but they dip with a clear cut off and are angled in front of me and the verge. It’s really not most car lights. It’s poor adjustment.

I actually had to leave my job/career because of these insane neon white lights. Probably partly age too but I swore last winter would be my last driving in pitch blackness with blinding lights and heavy rain, seeing accidents every day. It just started to feel like a real risk.
I'm now working safely from home.
I don't know what the hell car manufacturers were thinking when they switched from the perfectly functional warm white to the horrific neon white.

The dazzle from headlights is genuinely frightening. When you throw in the amount of major roads with zero streetlights now, which would help to disperse the headlight glare, I now just try my level best to avoid driving in the dark.