With halfway decent power stabilization, and the appropriate about of directionality in the lights, plus the lights being somewhere below the typical sedans window frame, the only time headlights should bother you, is when you’re on a hill, regardless if they’re LED or not.
IMO, one of two things is very wrong if you’re getting blinded by anyone’s headlights (highbeams not withstanding): either the designers and engineers that worked on the car are idiots, and placed headlights in a location that was going to blind people, or they used crap optics, etc… Or, the owner of the car can’t be arsed to have their headlights properly adjusted.
Honestly, it’s a little of A and a little of B… Depending on the car and the circumstance.
One the person I knew actually had self adjusting headlights, which somehow were damaged and would not adjust properly anymore. They drove around like that for years before retiring the vehicle.
LEDs legally have to be self-adjustable at least in EU. Your mandatory inspection will usually catch it if that system doesn’t work.
The bigger problem is people throwing LEDs in halogen housings. It’s not the LED’s fault. The other big problem in the US at least I reckon, is having vehicles that are way too tall, so their headlights, while hopefully dipped properly, are above a normal driver’s eye level.
It’s not uncommon to see massive trucks with insanely bright LED lights (a certain personality type), which puts the lights just about windshield level on a sedan.
What’s extra fun is now the lights also blind drivers going the same direction as the truck, as every mirror in the sedan is filled with light.
Not really, I have factory LED headlights on my 2023 Toyota Yaris and those are manually adjusted the same way halogen headlights used to be. Mind you I don’t have the LED matrix technology.
When it comes to people throwing LEDs in halogen housing, it doesn’t have to be bad. I used to use a pair of OSRAM LEDs instead of halogens in my Citroen Berlingo 2006, but those were homologated for road use with the same lumen rating as homologated halogens. They were not cheap, but the light pattern was the same as with halogens and they blinded oncoming traffic a lot less than halogens (I tested that with my friends and colleagues).
Of course using cheap illegal LEDs in halogen housing is a bad idea, but you can’t throw illegal solutions in one bag with legal and sensible solutions.
Interesting. I couldn’t legally drive a car with high output headlights without it having both automatic adjustment and headlamp washers. It’s simply mandatory
Maybe you mean that it’s manually adjustable in addition to having auto-leveling? I think that’s the case for nearly all cars. Or maybe your car manages to stay below some sort of light output limit despite having LEDs.
What you’re talking about aren’t LED headlamps, these regulations (auto-leveling and washers) are mandatory for xenon headlights.
LEDs don’t fall in the same category as xenon headlamps.
What is interesting is that halogens have maximum allowed lumen rating which is a lot lower than what xenon headlamps can have and LEDs can have even more.
person I knew actually had self adjusting headlights, which somehow were damaged and would not adjust properly anymore. They drove around like that for years before retiring the vehicle.
Where was that? In Europe this should have been spotted during the mandatory inspection?
With halfway decent power stabilization, and the appropriate about of directionality in the lights, plus the lights being somewhere below the typical sedans window frame, the only time headlights should bother you, is when you’re on a hill, regardless if they’re LED or not.
IMO, one of two things is very wrong if you’re getting blinded by anyone’s headlights (highbeams not withstanding): either the designers and engineers that worked on the car are idiots, and placed headlights in a location that was going to blind people, or they used crap optics, etc… Or, the owner of the car can’t be arsed to have their headlights properly adjusted.
Honestly, it’s a little of A and a little of B… Depending on the car and the circumstance.
One the person I knew actually had self adjusting headlights, which somehow were damaged and would not adjust properly anymore. They drove around like that for years before retiring the vehicle.
Can’t fix stupid.
LEDs legally have to be self-adjustable at least in EU. Your mandatory inspection will usually catch it if that system doesn’t work.
The bigger problem is people throwing LEDs in halogen housings. It’s not the LED’s fault. The other big problem in the US at least I reckon, is having vehicles that are way too tall, so their headlights, while hopefully dipped properly, are above a normal driver’s eye level.
It’s not uncommon to see massive trucks with insanely bright LED lights (a certain personality type), which puts the lights just about windshield level on a sedan.
What’s extra fun is now the lights also blind drivers going the same direction as the truck, as every mirror in the sedan is filled with light.
I live in Europe and it’s literally new stock cars that blind me.
Not really, I have factory LED headlights on my 2023 Toyota Yaris and those are manually adjusted the same way halogen headlights used to be. Mind you I don’t have the LED matrix technology.
When it comes to people throwing LEDs in halogen housing, it doesn’t have to be bad. I used to use a pair of OSRAM LEDs instead of halogens in my Citroen Berlingo 2006, but those were homologated for road use with the same lumen rating as homologated halogens. They were not cheap, but the light pattern was the same as with halogens and they blinded oncoming traffic a lot less than halogens (I tested that with my friends and colleagues). Of course using cheap illegal LEDs in halogen housing is a bad idea, but you can’t throw illegal solutions in one bag with legal and sensible solutions.
P.S. I live in the EU
Interesting. I couldn’t legally drive a car with high output headlights without it having both automatic adjustment and headlamp washers. It’s simply mandatory
Maybe you mean that it’s manually adjustable in addition to having auto-leveling? I think that’s the case for nearly all cars. Or maybe your car manages to stay below some sort of light output limit despite having LEDs.
What you’re talking about aren’t LED headlamps, these regulations (auto-leveling and washers) are mandatory for xenon headlights. LEDs don’t fall in the same category as xenon headlamps. What is interesting is that halogens have maximum allowed lumen rating which is a lot lower than what xenon headlamps can have and LEDs can have even more.
So it’s based on the lumens and it’s hard to make HIDs that don’t exceed the limit, but easier with LEDs. I just assumed that your LEDs were bright.
Where was that? In Europe this should have been spotted during the mandatory inspection?