The Feds Might Do Something About Those Distractingly Bright Headlights
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The blinding glare of LED headlights from oncoming traffic searing your retinas may become a thing of the past. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced this week that it intends to update vehicle lighting standards as part of changes to Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 108.
In simple terms, it means the administration could move to make LED headlights less blinding. The last time lighting standards were updated was 25 years ago, which is one reason US lighting regulations have allowed vehicles to have skull-searing headlights not typically seen in Europe or Japan.
“Today’s standards do not allow automakers to deploy the latest safety-improving lighting technologies, so we are bringing key experts and stakeholders together to modernize our standards and address potential causes of glare,” NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison said in a press statement. “This collaborative approach will allow us to update outdated regulations, foster innovation, and keep everyone on our roads safer.”
LED headlights make sense for an electric car, as they put minimal power drain on the batteries.
James Martin/CNET
The new regulations will update rules for LEDs, dusk sensors, automatic high beams and replaceable light sources. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy will appoint up to 18 industry stakeholders, safety advocates and technical experts to evaluate how headlamp height and aim affect driver visibility as part of efforts to align US vehicles with international safety standards.
Since 2022, companies have been allowed to use adaptive driving beams, which are dynamic systems that can keep high beams on while dimming portions of the beam to avoid glare to oncoming drivers. However, the implementation of this policy doesn’t match the same standards seen in Europe.
Some companies are already positioned to take advantage of the changes with their upcoming models. Rivian, with its R1T and R1S Gen 2 models, already uses this type of lighting. Audi will debut its 2027 Q9 flagship SUV with the technology.
Better headlights would come as a welcome change for many drivers. Gripes about blinding LED headlights are well documented, with an entire subreddit of 12,000 members dedicated to the topic. Reuters, citing a study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, says that from 2015 to 2023, headlight glare was cited as a factor in one or two out of every 1,000 nighttime crashes across 11 US states, though it noted that this is far fewer than the number of crashes caused by insufficient visibility.
Anecdotally, complaints about the brightness of headlights are a common topic in one of my group chats, with one member saying they often feel like the headlights are radioactive and can “X-ray and skeletonize oncoming drivers.”
NHTSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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