I love this idea lol

Poorly installed aftermarket headlights. Being LED has little to do with it.

No way, stock leds are everywhere and they're bullshit.

Not just aftermarket. Teslas are notorious for having overly bright, misaimed headlights.

I hope thats reflective tape.

There is no US regulation on headlight brightness, so it's a little of that and also new cars maxing out what they can put on the car. Add to that the height of trucks and SUVs.

LED lights are far brighter though, and the worst color wavelength for vision.

Yeah, I think a good amount of the issue with them could be resolved simply by using warmer color LEDs - it seems so obvious that I don't get why they don't.

Kinda obvious that it is reflective tape, thus the message.

The other is idiots lifting their 4×4s and not readjusting the angles. They probably wonder why they don't see as well now too.

That actually used to be the case, but then people got used to it, and now people think regular headlights are too dim because they don't illuminate way up into the sky like a second sun, and so new cars are coming out with brighter headlights (with higher angles, presumably). But there's no technical reason LEDs have to have their terrible reputation in headlights, so the spirit of your post is correct.

Need regulations, but it's hilarious to think that the Trump Admin will force the NHTSA to do this.

Is this duck tape? Regardless of the message, that’s dedication.

Yeah, as an owner of a vehicle with these fucking things. I hate them but there's literally nothing we can do. All vehicles sold have them now, and the manufacturers have no options for softer lights. I've tried for months.

Do what I did and write your MP. This needs to be legislated.

Boneappletea.

Edit: I guess it is a brand of duct tape.

Weird that so many claim to have problems wit it. I don't really see this getting worse, on the contrary. Most newer cars with LED here work fine. It's the older cars with high brightness bulbs that create the problems. And those are not always LED.
LED is better than older lights in every way, including AVOIDING to blind other drivers, because the LED light can be directed way more accurately.
The problem is bad headlights, not LED.

PS:
This is for Denmark/EU, it may be different in other countries?

Are you by any chance describing Adaptive Driving Beam headlights?
I believe they've been in available in the EU for quite some time, but only allowed in the US since 2022.

In many countries there are biannual safety checks, we have that here, and I haven't noticed that.
But it is also known that Tesla recommendations for safety are very lacking. So 30-40% if Tesla cars fail the safety check here, and have to go to the shop and get fixed before being able to drive on the road legally.

It's a brand now. But the name predates duct tape by 50-odd years. It came from the "cotton duck cloth" used in the design.

LED replacement bulbs are a common problem. The beam dip is designed around a single element. However, LEDs can't produce the intense light of an incandescent or halogen type bulb. To compensate, they use an array of LEDs. This creates a large emission surface. Some of the surface is a significant distance from where the element used to be. This completely messes up the beam shaping, throwing light where it shouldn't be.

Combine poor beam forming with higher vehicles, and higher outputs, and LEDs get a very bad rep.

A properly designed LED headlight has far less issues. Unfortunately there are a lot of stock units which also have poor designs.

presumably reflectice tape. if you want to go the extra mile for a bit like this there's a special nautical version that reflects much higher % and directly back at source

People keep telling me that acktually Tesla headlights have hi-tech sensors that avoid blinding people. And I’m like “I’m people, and they blind me all the time!”

They don’t teach people how to aim headlights anymore and people refuse to read the manual for the 4000 pound death machine they just purchased. So they even come from the dealership misaimed now and nobody does anything about it. We don’t even have annual inspections in my state anymore since 2002.

As with great many things, half the problem is education.

For whatever reason the US has not approved the adaptive headlights. We still have dumb lights, that keep getting brighter.

I despise the color of LEDs. Give me a headache and actually Make it harder to see.

No the fact that LED lights can be better focused go for both Matrix and standard LED headlights.
Our own car has Matrix lights, but that's still way way in the minority. However we do have 90+% adoption rate of EV, so we have a lot of cars with LED headlights.

I heard the same arguments about 20 or more years ago. "These new damn headlights are too bright. They blind all the oncoming traffic. These headlights should be banned by law." Ofcourse the one making these complaints was my dad and xenon headlights were becoming quite common at that point, even on some cheaper cars. The only time i've had problems with "bright" headlights is when the car that i'm driving has either terrible lights (so old and tired bulbs) or the lights are not adjusted correctly and point down way too much. Funnily enough the 2 cars i head with terrible lights both had xenon bulbs. The last 2 cars that i've had so far both have halogen bulbs. No issue with headlights that are too bright. Then again me not having any issues doesn't mean that complaints from others arent valid but incorrectly aimed lights with bad bulbs are already an issue in my circle so i'd imagine that these are the people that complain about LEDs the most. I also live in the EU so yearly inspectons atleast don't let you pass if your headlights are terrible.

FREEDOM 😋

or the lights are not adjusted correctly

Yes, and that will remain a problem disregarding the type of light.

Funnily enough the 2 cars i head with terrible lights both had xenon bulbs.

That's strange, do they get weak as they get old?
Funny enough I had just replaced the halogen bulbs in our old car to some crazy expensive ones with shorter lifespan, just before we got our EV.
Then when I got home, I found out that for the same price, I could have had LED bulbs. 🤥

I just hope our headlights last really long, because they cost $2000 to replace a piece!

No. 10 years ago you might've had a point but nowadays every new car on the road has blinding LED headlights

On my first car the mechanism that is supposed to adjust the headlight level was broken so the lights "fell" into their lowest position so only the front of my car was lit up. On my second car i took the time to fix everything and adjusted the headlights to a correct position but the bulbs themselves were old and probably had weaker or less brightness than new halogen bulbs.
As far as LED bulbs, i only use LEDs in my high beams. I don't want to be that guy who blinds everyone with their cheap LEDs but with high beams you're supposed to switch them off anyway. Doesn't really make much of a difference to me if you use LED high beams or if you add a LED Bar (so extra lights) to your car. LED high beams just don't add an ugly extra lights to your car while also being a bit weaker, so if you forget or drive on a windy road then you don't blind others as much.

There are regulations but the regulations haven’t been updated since the halogen bulb era. Tests designed for headlights with a single light source can be gamed by led headlight manufacturers to get approval for lamps that are way brighter than the law ever intended. Additionally, the regulations we have aren’t enforced after the design is approved. Manufacturers have to get approval of new designs but no one ever gets a ticket for blindingly bright lights. Lifting your truck or adding extra high wheels requires adjusting the angle of the headlights, but no one ever does that.

Edit: this article talks about it a bit more https://www.cbtnews.com/modern-headlights-too-bright-and-dangerous/

I have them as well and a lot of others around me and they're awesome!

As long as they're regulated properly. I'm in Germany and we love regulating stuff!

the LED light can be directed way more accurately

This only works on flat roads. Where I am, this results in what looks like the driver behind you rapidly flicking their high beams on and off every time you go over a one foot hump in the road. It's possibly worse than just having it be consistently too bright.

Kind of a dick move but I chuckled

I agree, but bumpy roads like that are annoying disregarding what headlights are used.
We have roads that have bumps to slow traffic, and THAT is annoying IMO. Not that I can figure out a much better solution, so I guess we have to live with it, but it's still annoying to be blinded by a car half a kilometer away because there's a bump is super annoying.
I guess that at some point the cars will be able to prevent it automatically, Matrix light technology should definitely be able to in theory.

TIL

TIL "canvas" is derived from "cannabis".

False.

I hate that this is always the excuse. People are not replacing their headlights with the frequency that would be required for how insanely common blindingly bright headlights are these days.

If their lights are properly aligned it won't be an issue.

If they aren't, then it's the owner's responsibility to fix them. They're a danger to everybody else on the road.

Yes you can! You can get them adjusted at a mechanic, or get the internal reflector swapped out

I've checked with different spots for 3 years. Maybe for some makes and models, but not for dodge.

"Yeah but that's just an anecdote bro"

Doing god's work

You know, I've thought about getting one of those obnoxiously bright, completely unfocused LED lights bars.

And mounting it on the back.

I live on a windy mountain road and they blind me in absolute darkness. I wish people had more sense.

I didn't think it was reflective tape at first. I think I thought it was just a little pixelated.

Hit em with the uno reverse!

Lately I’ve seen people driving around with their high beams on at dusk.

Might have to do with living next to a retirement community.

I drive a compact sports coupe, there's no world in which modern SUV headlights aren't flooding my rearview with LED ultra white brightness. Their headlights are literally the same height as my rearview.

My buddy had an Audi A4, probably a 2003, and one of the features was just this bright ass light that you could turn on that pointed backwards. He had another Audi after that didn't have it, never really seen one with it, other than that. It was great for dealing with tailgaters.