Yeah, I have an Audi and my headlights sometimes make me feel like an asshole. If I’m ever in a drivethru at night, I am sure to turn my lights off. If I’m driving behind someone on the highway, I’m sure to drive several car lengths back from whoever is in front of me so as not to blind them even on an off chance.
I HATE when people get right up on your ass with their bright headlights, aftermarket or stock. I often will angle my mirrors so the light is shining back into their car and not blinding me, because ain’t nobody got time for that. If I’m aware of how bright my lights can be and keep a safe distance so as not to disturb folks, these idiots should too.
As far as halogen headlights go, there are basically three categories (four if you count tinted poseurbulbs…
1; standard 3100k bulbs, these are long life bulbs, not overdriven, they’re the “yellowest” of the group
2; “performance” bulbs, color temps in the mid 3,000 range, may have a slight bluish tinge to them, bulb glass might have a blue tint on the bulb capsule to make them look “HID” style, this tint reduces light transmission, but since blue light scatters on the retina easier, they look “whiter”, not all performance bulbs have a blue tint on the capsule
These bulbs are also slightly overdriven to burn hotter and produce more light, this reduces their lifespan noticeably, standard bulbs often last 3-4 years, performance bulbs are lucky to last two (examples are GE Nighthawk and Sylvania Silverstar)
3; “Ultraperformance” bulbs, 4,000 to 4,300K color temperature, SEVERELY overdriven, noticeable blue tint, you’re lucky to get a year out of them, these are the “Blindems” mentioned above, Silverstar Ultra and Silverstar SXT are the perfect example of this
They should, but I don’t think their thought processes go further than, “Doop de doo, driving along, not caring if I’m blinding everyone around me…doop de doo…”
I believe this isn’t actually true. tests have shown that people who are conditioned to expect the large source and color of a regular headlight perceive the brightness of an HID light, due to the color and the size of the source, to be brighter than it actually is. Once you overcome the mental reflex, I think you will find that OEM HID headlights do not actually cause any discomfort.
There’s also a correlation between age and sensitivity to light, so older drivers who are use to the old types of bulbs tend to be more sensitive and the effect is compounded. Throw in some selective memory bias and old people just seem like they hate everything.
I mean, I get what you’re saying and I definitely like to think that I’m not the kind of person who just hates everything (a human Grumpy Cat, if you will). That said, I do a lot of driving on a monthly basis, particularly along the I15 from Las Vegas into California, often at night. There is a noticable and often painful difference between the lights on most cars and even the semis. . . and the kind of lights I’m talking about. For the most part, I think what I experience are mostly after market lights-- and that’s just because they often aren’t on newer luxury cars (those I don’t notice as much).
Totally concede I may just be suffering from some sort of wicked confirmation bias, but I definitely get “blinded” at least once or twice a trip. Or, of course, perhaps I am human Grumpy Cat. :mad:
I don’t mean the aftermarket shit, I mean the lights on your Audi are perfectly fine. There is an SAE paper out there somewhere ( I can’t find it right now) that has tested people with different kinds of lights and people actually perceive HID lights to be much brighter when they aren’t( to the other driver, as properly designed lights light up the road, and should not be throwing up excess light into the eyes of other drivers.), just because the source of the light is smaller and the color is whiter. Next time a BMW or Mercedes is coming at you, keep it in mind, when I did I actually didn’t find the lights to be uncomfortable at all, just different.
OEM lighting equipment is actually very tightly regulated by the NHTSA and strictly enforced. Smaller companies like Ferrari and Lamborghini actually use to use lighting fixtures from other mass market cars or buses on their mega dollar cars, because the cost to develop lighting equipment that met with all regulatory requirements (in multiple markets) is huge, and small companies can’t afford to design unique stuff for low volume cars. Of course the first thing that many people do when they get new cars is rip out their expensive OEM lights and replace it with $30 Chinese junk they got from eBay.
The especially galling thing is that generally these lights do not actually help the driver at all. Proper OEM lights do not throw light down 4 or 5 feet in front of the car, because travelling at speed, there’s nothing you can do about something that’s 4 feet in front of you, you’ve already run it over before you can react, and having more light in the foreground interferes with your ability to see further. The aftermarket stuff does throw light down there, because it doesn’t fit properly inside the housing and just throws light everywhere, and give idiots the illusion of better lighting when it’s actually hurting their ability to see.
Other drivers get blinded, the idiot driver of the car with the shit lights can’t see as well, the car now has worse lights than what it started with, money was spent. Basically everyone is worse off for no reason other than sheer ignorance. I literally want the death penalty to be applied to anyone who installs aftermarket lights on their car.
They aren’t that common around here yet, what bugs me are the giant fuck you trucks whose headlights are level with my head because I’m driving a car. When those guys get behind you you can’t see shit because your car and vision are filled with light.
And different from the usual accusations of dumbness.
I 100% endorse this pitting. I drive a Fit, which is a small car but not lower on the ground than my old Corolla. I hate SUVs and trucks with a passion, always shining their stupid lights into my car, but no one is worse than those aftermarket assholes that probably enjoy blinding people on the road.
Hey! I wasn’t calling you dumb. I just notice that everytime someone thinks they’ve scored a point on you, they resort to saying “really not all that bright, indeed,” as though it’s the first time anyone’s ever said anything like that.
BMW does, in fact, have auto-dimming side mirrors. My cousin has them on his '08 M3. I’m not sure what other manufacturers have them. They’re not perfect, but they essentially work as advertised.
As an aside, fie on everyone who says that my side mirrors are aimed improperly. Who are y’all, the side mirror police? I’ve tried this new-fangled method and it sucks.
Yup, I tried this new-fangled thing called “daily bathing”, and it sucks, too. That whole covering your nose/mouth with a sleeve or tissue rather than your hand is some inefficient garbage, too.
Kids need to get off my lawn and stop telling me to change my ways.
Hijack to ask – how rude do you folks find it when someone has their brights on across the (wide) highway median? I keep mine on if there is no one in front of me, because of the chance of critters like moose…
There is in OZ, I have seen cars get defected due to lights being overly aggressive. I have aftermarket HIDs on my Jeep and they are aimed properly and cause no offence to other drivers.
My rule of thumb is in this situation is that I wait until I’m getting close to the person in the opposing lane, then switch them off as I pass them. As soon as we pass, I turn them back on. As to how far away I do it? I don’t know-- 100 yards or so. I try to catch it before I get close enough for it to being blinding and or annoying.
If there’s a steady flow of traffic in the opposite direction, I don’t need my brights on anyway— the lights from the opposing cars light up the highway well enough, generally.
Driving after dark on a very empty I-25 in New Mexico recently, I did find oncoming cars with their brights on annoying. Certainly nothing as bad as an oncoming car on a non-divided highway, but distracting. I wanted to turn mine on, but the ones from on coming cars were bad enough that I didn’t want to contribute to the problem, so I left mine off except when there was nobody in front of me at all. This applies to that road, though; one which is mostly straight and with no obstructions in the median. I’ve been on other roads where opposite sides are perhaps separated by elevation or a wooded median so that I’ve noticed cars on the other side had their brights on, but it didn’t bother me.
