• Skull giver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl
    61·
    3 months ago

    LEDs are brighter at the same voltage and amperage, but not necessarily blinding. What’s blinding is the idiotic height at which headlights are mounted today, misconfigured headlights (you’re supposed to adjust them as you add more load to your car so they’re angled right, which many people don’t seem to know), and above all, people who don’t know what they’re doing replacing light bulbs with LEDs without the necessary load in series.

    If anything, LEDs having MUCH better lifespans than bulbs is saving people.

    • bountygiver [any]@lemmy.mlEnglish
      3·
      3 months ago

      and they had to be pointed high because the average speed is fast, and the speed people are driving is definitely way too fast for safety.

    • AEsheron@lemmy.world
      74·
      3 months ago

      This isn’t strictly true. Even with the same beam pattern, LEDs will inherently have more glare. This is due to a combination of the physics of how LEDs project light in a more directed beam than more uniform halogens, and because they produce a cooler light that our brains interpret as brighter even at the same intensity as a warmer light. But yeah, the height issue has been a problem for a long time, even before LEDs were in use, LEDs have simply exasperated the problem there. And while mismounting them will lead to issues, upgrades are still a relatively small portion of headlights compared to factory ones.

      • Skull giver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl
        16·
        3 months ago

        Light warmth is something the manufacturer controls. There’s nothing (except for maybe regulation somewhere) preventing manufacturers from adding high-CRI LEDs calibrated to warm white to cars. The price difference isn’t that high compared to the price if a car. The harsh, blue light is a choice.

        And while there is a difference between LEDs and halogens, it’s not that big of an issue. Especially with competent diffusers over the LEDs.

    • lnxtx (xe/xem/xyr)@feddit.nlOPEnglish
      86·
      3 months ago

      If anything, LEDs having MUCH better lifespans than bulbs is saving people.

      There are 2 (4 if high beams are separated) incandescent light bulbs in a car without LEDs.
      There is at least 1 extra point of redundancy.
      Also car light bulbs are made to last longer in automotive environment.

      LEDs having better lifespan in a paper. But In real world your mileage may vary.

      I’m not against LEDs, but current execution is bad: too bright, too easy to blind other people.

  • Lojcs@lemm.ee
    271·
    3 months ago

    Aren’t all lights led nowadays? I don’t think the type of the light is the problem

    • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
      15·
      3 months ago

      exactly, LED lights aren’t magically bad, car regulations and enforcement of those regulations just suuuuuuuuuuuck.

      The only reason you couldn’t make incandescents as bad is because they’d fucking melt.

    • RoabeArt [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      5·
      3 months ago

      There are still cars that come with incandescent bulbs. I own a 3 year old base model Civic and it still has regular light bulbs in the headlights and tail lights.

  • JackbyDev@programming.devEnglish
    241·
    3 months ago

    LED Headlights aren’t the problem. Are LED lightbulbs a billion times brighter than others? No. They make them use less power and are the same brightness. The problem is not using dimmer LEDs.

    • AspieEgg@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      4·
      3 months ago

      It’s also the way they make cheap LED headlights. The reflectors that direct the beam of light in your headlights expects the filament of the bulb to be in a very specific spot, but LED headlights often have a much wider area where the light emits from than the little filament that traditional headlights do. So when installed in cars that aren’t designed for LEDs, the beam pattern can be off and make the light shine at people instead of down toward the road.

  • TheDoctor [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    41·
    3 months ago

    Can someone who knows more about the engineering of these lights explain why they suck so much? It seems like them being LED rather than incandescent can’t be the whole story. I just want to be able to drive at night without being blinded every time a car comes through the opposing lane.

    • Coolkidbozzy [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      61·
      3 months ago

      LED headlights can be many times brighter than incandescent bulbs with no significant impact to life expectancy. Physically, incandescent bulbs produce light by heating up an element which decays relatively quickly. LEDs directly convert electricity to light.

      In the US, there ARE regulations limiting how bright headlights can be, but aftermarket LEDs can be bought which exceed the limit. I’ve heard the EU and Asia already widely use adaptive headlight technology so it’s a uniquely american car problem