> Thankfully I live in America which was founded based on the concept of freedom.Where do you think I live and all the people who despise people like you live. Good ol' America. Yes, the concept of freedom must be why smoking is banned in most public spaces? Why there are noise ordinances in most places. You have to be one sick puppy to think the founder's concept of freedom includes morons disturbing the people while they sleep in their homes. Here is a another concept of freedom". Freedom from unnecessary noise pollution.

In general, an LED light bar that is worth purchasing is one that is built to last thousands of hours, provides a large amount of light without drawing too much ...

Linear regulators are a low-end option for flashlights, with switched-mode power supplies being preferred for their superior efficiency. A car has a lot more energy to work with and more mass with which to sink and radiate heat.

Ever since that night, I have always assumed that slow PWM was used as a deliberate visual effect: After all, General Motors isn't really trying to squeeze a few pennies out of a new Cadillac [that's what Chevrolet is for!].(I also think it's a dick move on the manufacturer's part, whether it is to save forty-seven cents, or if it is to look cool, or even if it is both.)

Around here, there are geriatric drivers aplenty at certain times of year who drive with brights on all the time, hills or straightaways or anything. very annoying. including in daylight.

Modern cars indeed have a very sharp, well-designed cutoff at the top of their beam patter. This makes correct vertical aiming very sensitive: aim just slightly too high and oncoming drivers get nearly the full output of your headlights; aim just a little too low and your vision range becomes noticeably limited. Older headlights, with much softer upper beam patterns, were far more forgiving.The problem is bad enough that, on my 2022, I carry an 8mm wrench in the glovebox so I can adjust the headlight aim as needed. This is particularly important because the aim is sensitive enough that loading or unloading the back of the car changes the level stance enough to put the headlights noticeably out of aim.Compounding this problem, it's very common for cars to have poorly-adjusted headlights from the factory, often too high. I think this is because the factory adjusts the lights for a combination of the rated loading and not getting complaints from new buyers (which is more likely when they are aimed too low). Additionally, at least in the US, the "correct" alignment of the headlights is defined by the position of the headlight themselves (the top cutoff should be level to the position of the bulb, is the simple version, although I think the more formal version specifies a measuring distance and slight upward tolerance). This means that tall vehicles like pickup trucks will blind oncoming drivers of shorter vehicles when properly adjusted---once again, this was a much more forgiving problem when the top of the light pattern was much softer, but has become extremely noticeable now that headlights emit their full output almost all the way to the top.I understand that auto-leveling headlights and headlights with a cabin height adjustment are much more common in Europe. For whatever reason they're rare in the US, and I think it might be difficult to get them to comply with US regulations which I understand to be somewhat archaic on this topic. Auto-leveling is probably the best technical solution available.How does it work on your German SUV? are the headlights aimed appreciably below level? Perhaps Germany uses a fixed height at fixed distance standard, which I think might be a better choice overall, but does have its downsides (allows lights on small cars to be aimed a lot higher).

Daniel has a webpage about how France used to require yellow headlights: https://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/lights/light_color/...The rest of Europe didn't require yellow headlights, and there was a problem of having to put cadmium in the glass, so France got rid of their requirement.I submitted an AskHN a few years ago, but it didn't get much traction: Ask HN: What prevents the automotive industry from using safe LEDs? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27334405In 2020 I sat down to think about why blue light at night is so terrible, and sort of figured it out.

But you work in some capacity with loud cars. Right? Why else would you be so defensive?> As another commenter pointed out, it’s done because they enjoy the sound for themselves and their own pleasure while driving.As I said, they could enjoy it driving on race tracks designated for such things. They also enjoy annoying others with said sound. Lets be honest here. That's why they drive through residentia neighborhoods disturbing the peace.> This is the exact behavior why this argument can’t ever be hadAn argument can't be had because you are not an honest debater. You have an agenda. Anyone can read this comment thread and see it. You are the problem. Not everyone else. Okay pal.> Thankfully I live in America which was founded based on the concept of freedom.Where do you think I live and all the people who despise people like you live. Good ol' America. Yes, the concept of freedom must be why smoking is banned in most public spaces? Why there are noise ordinances in most places. You have to be one sick puppy to think the founder's concept of freedom includes morons disturbing the people while they sleep in their homes. Here is a another concept of freedom". Freedom from unnecessary noise pollution.

Moreover, like I mentioned, quite a lot of European cars have systems to automatically align and even steer/shape the beams dynamically, and do not require that type of adjustment.VW's "dynamic light assist" for example, actively detects oncoming vehicles and dynamically reshapes the lighting pattern to block most of the light going directly towards other vehicles, while still lighting everything else.

If you're in the middle of nowhere highway, hit the brights. Otherwise, these lights need regulated. I wonder if there is a resistance mod that could be put in to lower the brightness for someone who cared to.

If it means that you can't stomp on the accelerator in a residential area in your stock performance vehicle at night, so be it. Yes, some legally stock vehicles are loud when driven hard. So don't drive them hard when that's inappropriate.

It sounds like there is an area that is focused on for the test and they can engineer the lights to avoid putting too much light in that area.

The Light Dome III is the flagship softbox for Aputure's Bowens Mount lights, featuring the same 3ft (90cm) circular shape with a brand new quick-folding, flat- ...

I’m also sure you’re conflating the one or two obnoxious vehicles you’ve heard into “any vehicle that I can hear at all is now bad”. As many others pointed out - motorcycles is even mostly considered a point of road safety to be loud.The resistance you get to your argument is because instead of simply asking your neighbor to start their car quietly (most new cars have valvetronic exhausts and can do this) you immediately jump to “I want to jail another person and take away their freedom because they’ve inconvenienced me momentarily”.

Wrong again, cars - not just exhausts - have been a hobby since I was a child, like for most people fond of cars. My field of occupation is wholly unrelated to cars.> An argument can't be had because you are not an honest debater. You have an agenda. Anyone can read this comment thread and see it. You are the problem. Not everyone else. Okay pal.Im not sure how you can call yourself a honest debater when your solution to an annoyance was to jail people. I’m not sure what your point is here - we both have an agenda in this argument, I’m willing to listen and accept that there is examples of people that fall into the group I’m defending who create a problem, I don’t think you’re willing to listen and/or accept alternative ways of thinking as you’ve demonstrated by seemingly trying to personally attack me.> Where do you think I live and all the people who despise people like you live. Good ol' America. Yes, the concept of freedom must be why smoking is banned in most public spaces? Why there are noise ordinances in most places. You have to be one sick puppy to think the founder's concept of freedom includes morons disturbing the people while they sleep in their homes. Here is an another concept of freedom". Freedom from unnecessary noise pollution.The purpose of my comment beyond the pun was to point out that it was founded on reasonable laws that allowed people to do as they wish as long as it didn’t harm others - and I find it seriously doubtful that you’d even hear me driving through your neighborhood - because my car will be driving at a reasonable residential speed with the exhaust valves closed which is what almost everyone does. Since you seemingly ignored my last point I’ll remind you - making an obscene amount of noise driving down your residential road is likely still illegal under your local cities ordinance.I’m not sure why it’s such a difficult point to convey that there are far more potentially loud and modified vehicles than you realize, and you never notice because we’re reasonable and respectful and not intentionally making noise - almost every sports car has valvetronic exhausts now and you can chose the sound output of the car with a button press that way you can enjoy it when appropriate, and silence it when not. I agree with you that if someone is being disrespectful using their car, then that is a problem the same as if a neighbor decided to mow their grass at 3am and is unrelated to the car - it all probably still violates the local noise ordinance. The law you’re asking for already exists and the problem is the person not the vehicle.

Then LEDs were invented by companies that didn't have that old R&D. The automotive industry gradually switched to LEDs for the advantage of not needing to replace bulbs (but lights that fail are now >$1000 to replace instead of $5)Instead of putting safe low-blue LEDs on their cars (~2400K), auto manufacturers are using 4000K to 5000K LEDs. These have too much blue light.To understand modern lighting, the term "spectral power distribution" is quite helpful: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectral_power_distributionRelative Spectral Power Distribution graphs show how much of each color of the rainbow is in a given source of light. Incandescent bulbs are mostly Red-orange-yellow light with a bit of green and even less blue. 5000K fluorescent or LED bulbs are mostly blue light with just enough red orange and yellow to trick people into thinking the light is 'white'.I emailed Daniel Stern a few years ago and asked, essentially, 'why aren't auto manufacturers putting safe lights on their cars?' The essence of his reply was that the automotive engineers still know how to design safe headlights, but there were other considerations in play. I took this to mean that the marketing department told the engineers, "cars with safe headlights don't sell anymore, so you need to design headlights with blue-white LEDs." Daniel's response also helped me realize that the worst of the headlights on the road in 2017 were LED retrofits, where people bought LEDs to replace the halogen bulbs their vehicle's headlights were designed to use.The shift to unsafe lights started in the 80's or 90's, when luxury brands started putting High Intensity Discharge lights on their vehicles. These lights have more blue light than the old incandescent and halogen headlights. Headlights with more blue became associated with more expensive cars, even though blue light is terrible for humans at night.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_discharge_lampDaniel has a webpage about how France used to require yellow headlights: https://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/lights/light_color/...The rest of Europe didn't require yellow headlights, and there was a problem of having to put cadmium in the glass, so France got rid of their requirement.I submitted an AskHN a few years ago, but it didn't get much traction: Ask HN: What prevents the automotive industry from using safe LEDs? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27334405In 2020 I sat down to think about why blue light at night is so terrible, and sort of figured it out.

In Europe lights have much better quality optics, that are less blinding to oncoming drivers at the same light output. For the most part, these are not US legal, and the even same European car models when sold in the USA have much worse lights that dangerously blind oncoming drivers.I have always (illegally) retrofitted my vehicles with European versions of the headlights, and I can see much better, and blind other drivers less. It is absolutely insane that having safe headlights is illegal in the USA.

My argument was simply that I have yet to see an implementation in proposal that stops the above, without also making the factory exhaust that’s barely above road noise level on your average sports car illegal. Where do you draw the line? How do you get people to agree on where the line is? Do you make exceptions for things like performance vehicles/supercars? You’re not going to find consensus among the population besides for most of us it’s a non-issue that nobody even thinks about.

Police mask have no incentive to ticket for any of this and the end result is being blinded at night constantly by either mis aligned headlights or cheap super bright LED bulbs.

I happened to buy one such light, just by chance, several years ago. It's a "Schwinn Intensa 100" from Wal-Mart, part number SW80251WM. It kind of sucks in terms of overall illumination and is no good for high-speed rides at night, but it does light up the path ahead and provides a sharp beam cutoff to avoid blinding others. (So actually, it's pretty excellent for casual riding.)

I’m not sure why it’s such a difficult point to convey that there are far more potentially loud and modified vehicles than you realize, and you never notice because we’re reasonable and respectful and not intentionally making noise - almost every sports car has valvetronic exhausts now and you can chose the sound output of the car with a button press that way you can enjoy it when appropriate, and silence it when not. I agree with you that if someone is being disrespectful using their car, then that is a problem the same as if a neighbor decided to mow their grass at 3am and is unrelated to the car - it all probably still violates the local noise ordinance. The law you’re asking for already exists and the problem is the person not the vehicle.

Still, I feel like "civility" here is breaking down and not turning off high beams may be a part of it (though I'm aware that feeling may be coloring my perceptions).

turns out i have a slight astigmatism, and wearing glasses when driving at night makes other cars headlights infinitely more tolerable. there's still the odd vehicle that has obnoxious headlights, but i went from most cars being intolerable to most cars being totally fine.

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You really think I'm talking about people starting their cars? You know what people are complaining about. You are being intentionally dense here.Let me guess, you make a living modifying cars to be extremely loud. Right?

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I have a German SUV with extremely powerful HID headlights, and on top of that, it is lifted- pretty awful for other drivers right? No! Because it has good optics with a sharp cutoff, and steerable headlights with tilt sensors on the suspension, and always keeps the headlights pointed low enough to not blind oncoming drivers, even when going over a bump. On top of that, it steers the lights into turns, and away from oncoming drivers around bends.

(This could be as simple as a filter that turns the duty cycle into a current target. This feature is nearly ubiquitous in off-the-shelf “dimmable constant current” line-voltage-input LED drivers from basically every supplier (e.g. Mean Well). The tricky bit would be to get the thing to turn on quickly enough without annoying brightness swings, so some actual care in the filter design and frequency selection would be required. Or one could use 0-10V control (also ubiquitous) or have just two states plus off or have digital control… there’s no shortage of perfectly fine solutions.)

Another feature of my condition is extreme light sensitivity, and difficulties with contrast. I generally need a lot of it, but at the same time, bright light washes out everything around it, blinding me. That feature seems to be progressing more rapidly than the loss of acuity in my case. Consequently, the extreme brightness of headlights nowadays is likely to cut my night driving still shorter, perhaps by years.If you're not facing such a prospect yourself, it can be difficult to appreciate what a loss of freedom and ease it is to give up driving. It sucks bad.I hope these overbright headlight haters continue to gain traction!

Since I did lift my vehicle for offroad use, if your vehicle is unusually low and I pulled right up on your bumper it could still shine bright inside (but still below the rearview mirror level)- but I am quite aware of this, and never pull forward enough that the cutoff rises above the bottom of the car window in front of me. This is also just a good driving technique for me as well, because it leaves me enough room to escape the lane or drive around you if I need to in an emergency, e.g. due to a disabled vehicle, etc.

I don’t know if the loud-exhaust bikers are correct about the facts but I do know it’s pointless to try convincing them otherwise; if they genuinely believe it’s safer, from their perspective you’re just demanding that they make an unsafe decision for your personal comfort. Not gonna happen.

This reminds me of how cigarette smokers famously don't know how horrible they smell to everyone around them, and think it's "fine", something they do to bring themselves "happiness and joy", and so forth. Maybe if the people around you who aren't car enthusiasts find your car obnoxious and deafening, it's just obnoxious and deafening.Personally, I'd settle for a compromise where no one is allowed to drive one of these vehicles down a street with private residences on it after 10 p.m.

Good luck arguing with the people who modify their motorcycles to be loud. The (nominal, though I suspect genuine for most) reason is to increase the likelihood that they are noticed by people driving cars.

As for me, I've switched to eInk panels for reading on the Internet (which is most of what I do) and use a red color filter at night or in dark spaces. I want to save my eyes for as long as possible!

Light emitting diode (LED) technology has developed quickly over the last decade. Once only the familiar red dot indicating power was on, LEDs can now ...

Most cars sold in Europe have had much brighter lights than the same models sold in the USA since the 70s and 80s, yet by using better optics, they had a sharp clearly defined cutoff that virtually eliminates all oncoming light to other drivers, while lighting the road itself and the side of the road a lot more. Yet, these brighter and more courteous lights had been illegal in the USA.I have a German SUV with extremely powerful HID headlights, and on top of that, it is lifted- pretty awful for other drivers right? No! Because it has good optics with a sharp cutoff, and steerable headlights with tilt sensors on the suspension, and always keeps the headlights pointed low enough to not blind oncoming drivers, even when going over a bump. On top of that, it steers the lights into turns, and away from oncoming drivers around bends.

As I said, they could enjoy it driving on race tracks designated for such things. They also enjoy annoying others with said sound. Lets be honest here. That's why they drive through residentia neighborhoods disturbing the peace.> This is the exact behavior why this argument can’t ever be hadAn argument can't be had because you are not an honest debater. You have an agenda. Anyone can read this comment thread and see it. You are the problem. Not everyone else. Okay pal.> Thankfully I live in America which was founded based on the concept of freedom.Where do you think I live and all the people who despise people like you live. Good ol' America. Yes, the concept of freedom must be why smoking is banned in most public spaces? Why there are noise ordinances in most places. You have to be one sick puppy to think the founder's concept of freedom includes morons disturbing the people while they sleep in their homes. Here is a another concept of freedom". Freedom from unnecessary noise pollution.

To understand modern lighting, the term "spectral power distribution" is quite helpful: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectral_power_distributionRelative Spectral Power Distribution graphs show how much of each color of the rainbow is in a given source of light. Incandescent bulbs are mostly Red-orange-yellow light with a bit of green and even less blue. 5000K fluorescent or LED bulbs are mostly blue light with just enough red orange and yellow to trick people into thinking the light is 'white'.I emailed Daniel Stern a few years ago and asked, essentially, 'why aren't auto manufacturers putting safe lights on their cars?' The essence of his reply was that the automotive engineers still know how to design safe headlights, but there were other considerations in play. I took this to mean that the marketing department told the engineers, "cars with safe headlights don't sell anymore, so you need to design headlights with blue-white LEDs." Daniel's response also helped me realize that the worst of the headlights on the road in 2017 were LED retrofits, where people bought LEDs to replace the halogen bulbs their vehicle's headlights were designed to use.The shift to unsafe lights started in the 80's or 90's, when luxury brands started putting High Intensity Discharge lights on their vehicles. These lights have more blue light than the old incandescent and halogen headlights. Headlights with more blue became associated with more expensive cars, even though blue light is terrible for humans at night.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_discharge_lampDaniel has a webpage about how France used to require yellow headlights: https://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/lights/light_color/...The rest of Europe didn't require yellow headlights, and there was a problem of having to put cadmium in the glass, so France got rid of their requirement.I submitted an AskHN a few years ago, but it didn't get much traction: Ask HN: What prevents the automotive industry from using safe LEDs? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27334405In 2020 I sat down to think about why blue light at night is so terrible, and sort of figured it out.

https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a39105913/new-york-automat...I'd like to see a version for headlights, but the logistics would be tricky. It's common in my area for people to lift their trucks, and they rarely readjust their headlights afterwards.

The rest of Europe didn't require yellow headlights, and there was a problem of having to put cadmium in the glass, so France got rid of their requirement.I submitted an AskHN a few years ago, but it didn't get much traction: Ask HN: What prevents the automotive industry from using safe LEDs? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27334405In 2020 I sat down to think about why blue light at night is so terrible, and sort of figured it out.

Im not sure how you can call yourself a honest debater when your solution to an annoyance was to jail people. I’m not sure what your point is here - we both have an agenda in this argument, I’m willing to listen and accept that there is examples of people that fall into the group I’m defending who create a problem, I don’t think you’re willing to listen and/or accept alternative ways of thinking as you’ve demonstrated by seemingly trying to personally attack me.> Where do you think I live and all the people who despise people like you live. Good ol' America. Yes, the concept of freedom must be why smoking is banned in most public spaces? Why there are noise ordinances in most places. You have to be one sick puppy to think the founder's concept of freedom includes morons disturbing the people while they sleep in their homes. Here is an another concept of freedom". Freedom from unnecessary noise pollution.The purpose of my comment beyond the pun was to point out that it was founded on reasonable laws that allowed people to do as they wish as long as it didn’t harm others - and I find it seriously doubtful that you’d even hear me driving through your neighborhood - because my car will be driving at a reasonable residential speed with the exhaust valves closed which is what almost everyone does. Since you seemingly ignored my last point I’ll remind you - making an obscene amount of noise driving down your residential road is likely still illegal under your local cities ordinance.I’m not sure why it’s such a difficult point to convey that there are far more potentially loud and modified vehicles than you realize, and you never notice because we’re reasonable and respectful and not intentionally making noise - almost every sports car has valvetronic exhausts now and you can chose the sound output of the car with a button press that way you can enjoy it when appropriate, and silence it when not. I agree with you that if someone is being disrespectful using their car, then that is a problem the same as if a neighbor decided to mow their grass at 3am and is unrelated to the car - it all probably still violates the local noise ordinance. The law you’re asking for already exists and the problem is the person not the vehicle.

One that I think would work well in cars is a fixed-current linear regulator like the AMC7135. There's no need to do anything fancy to control it; put a 7135 in the circuit and the LED gets 350mA. Two in parallel and it gets 700mA, and so on. More fancy is a linear regulator with variable current output.Linear regulators are a low-end option for flashlights, with switched-mode power supplies being preferred for their superior efficiency. A car has a lot more energy to work with and more mass with which to sink and radiate heat.

Driver ed books in most jurisdictions spell out where high beams ought to be used, and well-lit city streets are not one of them. It's kludge because it's being offered up as a technical solution to make up for rule-breaking drivers who use high beams as an default-on, when they ought to be default-off. Don't use high beams unless you need them, which should be a minority of the time. The bulk of society seems to have decided not to be inconvenienced by only seeing 20 car lengths at night, screw everybody else's night vision.

It 100% is when I was learning to drive in the 90's. Growing up I remember driving up the desolate back-roads of upstate NY on our way to VT and my father loosing his shit when some moron kept their high beams on. It was rare.I bet a lot of it has to do with modern car automation where auto dimming and other features are expected by newer drivers to just work and they blissfully drive around expecting the car to do everything for them. Laziness rendered by convenience.

> An argument can't be had because you are not an honest debater. You have an agenda. Anyone can read this comment thread and see it. You are the problem. Not everyone else. Okay pal.Im not sure how you can call yourself a honest debater when your solution to an annoyance was to jail people. I’m not sure what your point is here - we both have an agenda in this argument, I’m willing to listen and accept that there is examples of people that fall into the group I’m defending who create a problem, I don’t think you’re willing to listen and/or accept alternative ways of thinking as you’ve demonstrated by seemingly trying to personally attack me.> Where do you think I live and all the people who despise people like you live. Good ol' America. Yes, the concept of freedom must be why smoking is banned in most public spaces? Why there are noise ordinances in most places. You have to be one sick puppy to think the founder's concept of freedom includes morons disturbing the people while they sleep in their homes. Here is an another concept of freedom". Freedom from unnecessary noise pollution.The purpose of my comment beyond the pun was to point out that it was founded on reasonable laws that allowed people to do as they wish as long as it didn’t harm others - and I find it seriously doubtful that you’d even hear me driving through your neighborhood - because my car will be driving at a reasonable residential speed with the exhaust valves closed which is what almost everyone does. Since you seemingly ignored my last point I’ll remind you - making an obscene amount of noise driving down your residential road is likely still illegal under your local cities ordinance.I’m not sure why it’s such a difficult point to convey that there are far more potentially loud and modified vehicles than you realize, and you never notice because we’re reasonable and respectful and not intentionally making noise - almost every sports car has valvetronic exhausts now and you can chose the sound output of the car with a button press that way you can enjoy it when appropriate, and silence it when not. I agree with you that if someone is being disrespectful using their car, then that is a problem the same as if a neighbor decided to mow their grass at 3am and is unrelated to the car - it all probably still violates the local noise ordinance. The law you’re asking for already exists and the problem is the person not the vehicle.

That's not what I'm suggesting at all - matrix headlights absolutely should he used - clearly some drivers "need" them, I'm just identifying them as a kludge for asshole drivers who can't be bothered to flick a finger or thumb to dip their lights.

My rule of thumb is that f a solution is extremely comfortable for drivers then it is likely damaging to everybody else.* basically turning all cars in a coordinating mesh network

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1) is that some bulbs can be inserted into the holder two orientations, but only one is correct as there is often a shield stopping light bleeding up.2) is that some lights appear to be almost horizontal rather than aimed down, if you're driving a smaller car you have lights almost aimed right at you - we need to tax cars based on size as well as emissions.

Highways and semis create by far the most noise pollution. Dogs bark, people have parties outside, etc. The world is not a place requiring sterilization of the senses.

The resistance you get to your argument is because instead of simply asking your neighbor to start their car quietly (most new cars have valvetronic exhausts and can do this) you immediately jump to “I want to jail another person and take away their freedom because they’ve inconvenienced me momentarily”.

Is this true? Moving beams away from incoming traffic certainly was a feature (called "Active High Beam") on Volvo XC90 that I rented in California a few years ago. I've no idea if this was a US market car, or imported from somewhere, but it certainly existed and worked.

Where do you think I live and all the people who despise people like you live. Good ol' America. Yes, the concept of freedom must be why smoking is banned in most public spaces? Why there are noise ordinances in most places. You have to be one sick puppy to think the founder's concept of freedom includes morons disturbing the people while they sleep in their homes. Here is a another concept of freedom". Freedom from unnecessary noise pollution.

Americans don't want their cars inspected, so a new inspection criteria is unlikely. For those subject to mandatory safety inspections, it might already be part of the test.

Compounding this problem, it's very common for cars to have poorly-adjusted headlights from the factory, often too high. I think this is because the factory adjusts the lights for a combination of the rated loading and not getting complaints from new buyers (which is more likely when they are aimed too low). Additionally, at least in the US, the "correct" alignment of the headlights is defined by the position of the headlight themselves (the top cutoff should be level to the position of the bulb, is the simple version, although I think the more formal version specifies a measuring distance and slight upward tolerance). This means that tall vehicles like pickup trucks will blind oncoming drivers of shorter vehicles when properly adjusted---once again, this was a much more forgiving problem when the top of the light pattern was much softer, but has become extremely noticeable now that headlights emit their full output almost all the way to the top.I understand that auto-leveling headlights and headlights with a cabin height adjustment are much more common in Europe. For whatever reason they're rare in the US, and I think it might be difficult to get them to comply with US regulations which I understand to be somewhat archaic on this topic. Auto-leveling is probably the best technical solution available.How does it work on your German SUV? are the headlights aimed appreciably below level? Perhaps Germany uses a fixed height at fixed distance standard, which I think might be a better choice overall, but does have its downsides (allows lights on small cars to be aimed a lot higher).

It's hard to tell really if always-on high beams are now common or if SUVs + superbright beams makes it seem that way, especially given there are a lot of hills that can make any car's high beams seem on.Still, I feel like "civility" here is breaking down and not turning off high beams may be a part of it (though I'm aware that feeling may be coloring my perceptions).

A more modern example, is that European cars have long used dynamic/adaptive lights that actively detect and block the light going towards oncoming vehicles by dynamically reshaping the beam- a much more effective system than just having low beams that point lower. They also have steerable headlights that point away from oncoming traffic into turns, and automatically point the lights down if the vehicle suspension squats in the rear from a heavy load or bump. While they've long been legal and widely used in Europe, they are now legal in the USA as of 2 years ago- for example you can now order a new VW with "Dynamic Light Assist" option, which actively reshapes the beam.... but this is so recently legal almost no vehicles on the road have it yet.

I switched to vapes this time 'round. And unlike other times in the past when I didn't smoke tobacco, public smoking is pretty much forgotten in my corner of society here in 2024.So now, at this ripe middle age, I've finally become aware of the stink.And I'm certainly not going to go on some anti-smoking crusade, but... Dang, some people who smoke really stink. It's an effervescent odor that just radiates off of them in seemingly every direction, and tickles the insides of your nose in a bad way, and you can detect it sometimes from twenty feet away or more.I'm really sorry to have done that to others. I had no idea it was like this.

In no sense does banning intentionally loud vehicles "sterilize" the world of sound. As you noted, dogs bark, people have parties outside, etc.People who drive loud vehicles or motorcycles, especially through residential areas, should be fined for the 1st offense and imprisoned for the second offense. And mechanics who help create such cars should have their businesses shut.The people with these loud vehicles brought the hate on themselves by intentionally annoying people. If people like loud cars, then they should drive them in specifically designated race tracks.

I am constantly struggling to avoid glare at night from crazy lights. If I could wave my hand and fix one brand, without question it would be Teslas - they're systematically bad. All others seem like one-offs (bad maintenance, post-accident/replacement-misaligned, etc).

I emailed Daniel Stern a few years ago and asked, essentially, 'why aren't auto manufacturers putting safe lights on their cars?' The essence of his reply was that the automotive engineers still know how to design safe headlights, but there were other considerations in play. I took this to mean that the marketing department told the engineers, "cars with safe headlights don't sell anymore, so you need to design headlights with blue-white LEDs." Daniel's response also helped me realize that the worst of the headlights on the road in 2017 were LED retrofits, where people bought LEDs to replace the halogen bulbs their vehicle's headlights were designed to use.The shift to unsafe lights started in the 80's or 90's, when luxury brands started putting High Intensity Discharge lights on their vehicles. These lights have more blue light than the old incandescent and halogen headlights. Headlights with more blue became associated with more expensive cars, even though blue light is terrible for humans at night.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_discharge_lampDaniel has a webpage about how France used to require yellow headlights: https://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/lights/light_color/...The rest of Europe didn't require yellow headlights, and there was a problem of having to put cadmium in the glass, so France got rid of their requirement.I submitted an AskHN a few years ago, but it didn't get much traction: Ask HN: What prevents the automotive industry from using safe LEDs? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27334405In 2020 I sat down to think about why blue light at night is so terrible, and sort of figured it out.

Also: https://standards.ieee.org/ieee/1789/4479/For me, it's the sudden sensation of being mashed in a Berlin disco. While driving!

Related to your other comments- I think taller vehicles should still have the lights themselves mounted low, and should angle downwards somewhat, not just forwards. It should not be legal to build or drive a car where the cutoff is high enough to blind people in normal cars.

You used to get pulled over for running with high beams on in NYC. The usual reason for doing so was to hide a broken low beam head lamp and hope the cops didn't notice. Nowadays you can do whatever TF you want around here and no one seems to care.

Lightweight for easy handling · Water-resistant fiber cement backer board · Easy to install · 20-year warranty · Nominal thickness · Suitable for interior floors, ...

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Your classic LM317 linear regulator can do it pretty easily, with a potentiometer instead of a fixed resistor to set the output current. Section 9.3.3[1] of the datasheet describes the circuit, though in practice you might add a couple of capacitors for stability.There are also a number of discrete-transistor circuits. A current mirror with a rheostat is probably the simplest, though not generally ideal performance.[1]https://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/lm317.pdf?ts=1734395381792...

Used to like cars at one point but nowadays I find that my only (okay, only _daily_) grievances in life are noise from cars & driving at night in rich areas, both of which have soured my views on cars.

I've never seen a strobing tail light. The most "strobing" I've seen are some brake/tail lights that flash for 1-2 seconds right after they're turned on (to alert drivers better? still annoying imo).

There are already US regulations on car noise,[0] and in more general circumstances,[1][2] but once it's purchased it can be altered by the owner, and then it's often up to local authorities to enforce local (and state[3]) noise by-laws.[0] https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/49/325.7[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noise_Control_Act[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noise_regulation[3] https://www.semasan.com/resources/exhaust-noise-laws-state

Switching regulators can be used without having PWM on the LEDs though.LED flashlights use constant current sources, I don't know if that's infeasible or not for some reason on high-power car headlights.Personally I wouldn't be surprised if it's just to save the 47c. The car industry is competitive.

The shift to unsafe lights started in the 80's or 90's, when luxury brands started putting High Intensity Discharge lights on their vehicles. These lights have more blue light than the old incandescent and halogen headlights. Headlights with more blue became associated with more expensive cars, even though blue light is terrible for humans at night.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_discharge_lampDaniel has a webpage about how France used to require yellow headlights: https://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/lights/light_color/...The rest of Europe didn't require yellow headlights, and there was a problem of having to put cadmium in the glass, so France got rid of their requirement.I submitted an AskHN a few years ago, but it didn't get much traction: Ask HN: What prevents the automotive industry from using safe LEDs? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27334405In 2020 I sat down to think about why blue light at night is so terrible, and sort of figured it out.

I think it's a little bit of both. I believe the latter started the trend, and that confusion has led other people to just say screw it.

The German cars will at least attempt to dim the beam or auto turn off high beams, in Europe they’ll even divert the beam around you but for some reason we don’t allow that in the US. I drive a BMW as my daily and the computer makes every effort to not blind people.GM and Ford I just get constantly blinded by gigantic pillars of LEDs, regardless if I’m driving another truck or a low sports car.

An argument can't be had because you are not an honest debater. You have an agenda. Anyone can read this comment thread and see it. You are the problem. Not everyone else. Okay pal.> Thankfully I live in America which was founded based on the concept of freedom.Where do you think I live and all the people who despise people like you live. Good ol' America. Yes, the concept of freedom must be why smoking is banned in most public spaces? Why there are noise ordinances in most places. You have to be one sick puppy to think the founder's concept of freedom includes morons disturbing the people while they sleep in their homes. Here is a another concept of freedom". Freedom from unnecessary noise pollution.

People who drive loud vehicles or motorcycles, especially through residential areas, should be fined for the 1st offense and imprisoned for the second offense. And mechanics who help create such cars should have their businesses shut.The people with these loud vehicles brought the hate on themselves by intentionally annoying people. If people like loud cars, then they should drive them in specifically designated race tracks.

(I also think it's a dick move on the manufacturer's part, whether it is to save forty-seven cents, or if it is to look cool, or even if it is both.)

I have always (illegally) retrofitted my vehicles with European versions of the headlights, and I can see much better, and blind other drivers less. It is absolutely insane that having safe headlights is illegal in the USA.

And that's the heart of the problem, really. LEDs are getting brighter everywhere. As thigs get brighter, our vision acclimates to the new brightness until it's not bright enough, which drives demand for brighter things, which we acclimate to, etc. ad nauseum.As for me, I've switched to eInk panels for reading on the Internet (which is most of what I do) and use a red color filter at night or in dark spaces. I want to save my eyes for as long as possible!

No California Light Resources Board sticker on your headlights and you get a ticket. Give it at the same time as you get one for no front plate. Somehow cars are sold without front plate holders installed even though they're mandatory in California, too :PBut yeah, I'd welcome rules in California as a first step if the feds can't get it together.

For example, back in the 70s and 80s the only compliant lights were extremely dim disposable sealed beam light bulbs with an integrated lens and reflector. European cars had high end optics with large glass lenses and mirrors that used a replaceable H4 style bulb, but the American versions had to swap that entire system for something with a low quality disposable bulb. Car enthusiasts would often buy the better lights from overseas and swap them in. While technically illegal, not cop is going to ticket you for not blinding them enough. Nowadays at least American cars do have replaceable lights and not sealed beams.A more modern example, is that European cars have long used dynamic/adaptive lights that actively detect and block the light going towards oncoming vehicles by dynamically reshaping the beam- a much more effective system than just having low beams that point lower. They also have steerable headlights that point away from oncoming traffic into turns, and automatically point the lights down if the vehicle suspension squats in the rear from a heavy load or bump. While they've long been legal and widely used in Europe, they are now legal in the USA as of 2 years ago- for example you can now order a new VW with "Dynamic Light Assist" option, which actively reshapes the beam.... but this is so recently legal almost no vehicles on the road have it yet.

There's nothing I'm aware of relating to the electronics that drive them that would place such a low bound on frequency that the resulting pulses would be visibly distinct.MOSFETs are generally good for > tens-of-KHz frequencies, and so are the hardware PWM channels in every-day MCUs.

Any time I am approached by a new vehicle going over a minor hill, I am blinded by their LEDs. Makers like BMW obviously market such blinding lights as power, awareness, etc. but it is a danger to everyone on the road.If you're in the middle of nowhere highway, hit the brights. Otherwise, these lights need regulated. I wonder if there is a resistance mod that could be put in to lower the brightness for someone who cared to.

Because it's not just other drivers inconvenienced by super bright lights - people in their homes, pedestrians out if sensor range and camera systems are unaccounted for. Also, because a simpler solution exists for 99% of the times drivers abuse high beams, and has existed for 50+ years.Driver ed books in most jurisdictions spell out where high beams ought to be used, and well-lit city streets are not one of them. It's kludge because it's being offered up as a technical solution to make up for rule-breaking drivers who use high beams as an default-on, when they ought to be default-off. Don't use high beams unless you need them, which should be a minority of the time. The bulk of society seems to have decided not to be inconvenienced by only seeing 20 car lengths at night, screw everybody else's night vision.

> Where do you think I live and all the people who despise people like you live. Good ol' America. Yes, the concept of freedom must be why smoking is banned in most public spaces? Why there are noise ordinances in most places. You have to be one sick puppy to think the founder's concept of freedom includes morons disturbing the people while they sleep in their homes. Here is an another concept of freedom". Freedom from unnecessary noise pollution.The purpose of my comment beyond the pun was to point out that it was founded on reasonable laws that allowed people to do as they wish as long as it didn’t harm others - and I find it seriously doubtful that you’d even hear me driving through your neighborhood - because my car will be driving at a reasonable residential speed with the exhaust valves closed which is what almost everyone does. Since you seemingly ignored my last point I’ll remind you - making an obscene amount of noise driving down your residential road is likely still illegal under your local cities ordinance.I’m not sure why it’s such a difficult point to convey that there are far more potentially loud and modified vehicles than you realize, and you never notice because we’re reasonable and respectful and not intentionally making noise - almost every sports car has valvetronic exhausts now and you can chose the sound output of the car with a button press that way you can enjoy it when appropriate, and silence it when not. I agree with you that if someone is being disrespectful using their car, then that is a problem the same as if a neighbor decided to mow their grass at 3am and is unrelated to the car - it all probably still violates the local noise ordinance. The law you’re asking for already exists and the problem is the person not the vehicle.

Mar 9, 2022 — I am using 2021.2.14f with URP 12.1.5. I tune my lighting in the editor but standalone player produces noticeably darker lighting.

LED flashlights use constant current sources, I don't know if that's infeasible or not for some reason on high-power car headlights.Personally I wouldn't be surprised if it's just to save the 47c. The car industry is competitive.

The people with these loud vehicles brought the hate on themselves by intentionally annoying people. If people like loud cars, then they should drive them in specifically designated race tracks.

VW's "dynamic light assist" for example, actively detects oncoming vehicles and dynamically reshapes the lighting pattern to block most of the light going directly towards other vehicles, while still lighting everything else.

And "war"? You can see these a few voices in the wilderness with no leverage 'cause this little society presents the average person with no way to do anything about the many "little annoyances" of this society presents even when they add up to something nightmarish or happen to strongly affect a minority.

A lesser known trick is you can flash your highbeams before cresting a hill or going around a blind turn to warn drivers on the other side. I rarely encounter other drivers who do this, but when I do it almost always works.

I don't notice fifteen seconds of low rumble just cruising by -- that's not the problem at all.The problem is that of the intermittent noise of the occasional loud vehicle accelerating from a stop, and/or exiting a turn.

With a circular beam, it is really hard to illuminate the path ahead with any meaningful brightness without blinding others.A better beam pattern, ideally with sharp cutoffs, can illuminate a pathway and the obstacles that may be on it without unduly blinding others.---I happened to buy one such light, just by chance, several years ago. It's a "Schwinn Intensa 100" from Wal-Mart, part number SW80251WM. It kind of sucks in terms of overall illumination and is no good for high-speed rides at night, but it does light up the path ahead and provides a sharp beam cutoff to avoid blinding others. (So actually, it's pretty excellent for casual riding.)

But maybe it's possible, if you just want to fix your LEDs at a specific brightness which never changes, that you could find exactly the right current level...?

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> This is the exact behavior why this argument can’t ever be hadAn argument can't be had because you are not an honest debater. You have an agenda. Anyone can read this comment thread and see it. You are the problem. Not everyone else. Okay pal.> Thankfully I live in America which was founded based on the concept of freedom.Where do you think I live and all the people who despise people like you live. Good ol' America. Yes, the concept of freedom must be why smoking is banned in most public spaces? Why there are noise ordinances in most places. You have to be one sick puppy to think the founder's concept of freedom includes morons disturbing the people while they sleep in their homes. Here is a another concept of freedom". Freedom from unnecessary noise pollution.

You might ask why not connect them in series and get the voltage difference as small as possible. But the “forward voltages” of LEDs are highly temperature dependent and car battery voltage is (somewhat) engine rpm dependent (might swing between 12 and 13.8V between no rpm and some rpm. It’s kept flat at 13.8V)

Many people also replace standard or HID bulbs with cheap LED bulbs which are not designed for the original housing and that results in crazy high lumens spraying everywhere without a proper cutoff.Police mask have no incentive to ticket for any of this and the end result is being blinded at night constantly by either mis aligned headlights or cheap super bright LED bulbs.

That must be why I specifically stated police sirens, semis, etc are fine? I've nothing against "loud" cars that have a purpose. I've something against people intentionally modifying their cars to be loud.> The resistance you get to your argument is because instead of simply asking your neighbor to start their car quietly (most new cars have valvetronic exhausts and can do this) you immediately jump to “I want to jail another person and take away their freedom”.You really think I'm talking about people starting their cars? You know what people are complaining about. You are being intentionally dense here.Let me guess, you make a living modifying cars to be extremely loud. Right?

And I'm certainly not going to go on some anti-smoking crusade, but... Dang, some people who smoke really stink. It's an effervescent odor that just radiates off of them in seemingly every direction, and tickles the insides of your nose in a bad way, and you can detect it sometimes from twenty feet away or more.I'm really sorry to have done that to others. I had no idea it was like this.

Bike lights, at least as-sold here in the States, seem to generally be built from flashlight parts. And unlike car low beams, flashlights project a circular beam.With a circular beam, it is really hard to illuminate the path ahead with any meaningful brightness without blinding others.A better beam pattern, ideally with sharp cutoffs, can illuminate a pathway and the obstacles that may be on it without unduly blinding others.---I happened to buy one such light, just by chance, several years ago. It's a "Schwinn Intensa 100" from Wal-Mart, part number SW80251WM. It kind of sucks in terms of overall illumination and is no good for high-speed rides at night, but it does light up the path ahead and provides a sharp beam cutoff to avoid blinding others. (So actually, it's pretty excellent for casual riding.)

I think you’re straw manning my argument, where I conceded that absolutely some people go too far and are obnoxious. The civic at 2am example is a great one, street racing late at night is another, and I agree with you that’s unnecessary.My argument was simply that I have yet to see an implementation in proposal that stops the above, without also making the factory exhaust that’s barely above road noise level on your average sports car illegal. Where do you draw the line? How do you get people to agree on where the line is? Do you make exceptions for things like performance vehicles/supercars? You’re not going to find consensus among the population besides for most of us it’s a non-issue that nobody even thinks about.

Also, having it flash in a consistent manner (and not some kind of "random" cycle) is best, as it's easier to track a simple on-off pattern with a deterministic frequency.(If you're riding on non-lit roads or trails, then certainly more lumens and further throw is useful.)

A better beam pattern, ideally with sharp cutoffs, can illuminate a pathway and the obstacles that may be on it without unduly blinding others.---I happened to buy one such light, just by chance, several years ago. It's a "Schwinn Intensa 100" from Wal-Mart, part number SW80251WM. It kind of sucks in terms of overall illumination and is no good for high-speed rides at night, but it does light up the path ahead and provides a sharp beam cutoff to avoid blinding others. (So actually, it's pretty excellent for casual riding.)

Just regulate the beam pattern and brightness with consideration given to modern LED lighting not 1980's incandescent bulbs.

I understand that auto-leveling headlights and headlights with a cabin height adjustment are much more common in Europe. For whatever reason they're rare in the US, and I think it might be difficult to get them to comply with US regulations which I understand to be somewhat archaic on this topic. Auto-leveling is probably the best technical solution available.How does it work on your German SUV? are the headlights aimed appreciably below level? Perhaps Germany uses a fixed height at fixed distance standard, which I think might be a better choice overall, but does have its downsides (allows lights on small cars to be aimed a lot higher).

The purpose of my comment beyond the pun was to point out that it was founded on reasonable laws that allowed people to do as they wish as long as it didn’t harm others - and I find it seriously doubtful that you’d even hear me driving through your neighborhood - because my car will be driving at a reasonable residential speed with the exhaust valves closed which is what almost everyone does. Since you seemingly ignored my last point I’ll remind you - making an obscene amount of noise driving down your residential road is likely still illegal under your local cities ordinance.I’m not sure why it’s such a difficult point to convey that there are far more potentially loud and modified vehicles than you realize, and you never notice because we’re reasonable and respectful and not intentionally making noise - almost every sports car has valvetronic exhausts now and you can chose the sound output of the car with a button press that way you can enjoy it when appropriate, and silence it when not. I agree with you that if someone is being disrespectful using their car, then that is a problem the same as if a neighbor decided to mow their grass at 3am and is unrelated to the car - it all probably still violates the local noise ordinance. The law you’re asking for already exists and the problem is the person not the vehicle.

The problem is that of the intermittent noise of the occasional loud vehicle accelerating from a stop, and/or exiting a turn.

When I was a kid, everyone smoked everywhere. And I spent decades smoking cigarettes, or cigars. I'd quit for a few months or a year at different times, but in my corner of society I was still around tobacco smoke even when I wasn't smoking myself. It was impossible to evade.Because I was always exposed to it, I never really became aware of the stink.I switched to vapes this time 'round. And unlike other times in the past when I didn't smoke tobacco, public smoking is pretty much forgotten in my corner of society here in 2024.So now, at this ripe middle age, I've finally become aware of the stink.And I'm certainly not going to go on some anti-smoking crusade, but... Dang, some people who smoke really stink. It's an effervescent odor that just radiates off of them in seemingly every direction, and tickles the insides of your nose in a bad way, and you can detect it sometimes from twenty feet away or more.I'm really sorry to have done that to others. I had no idea it was like this.

There would be little reason to use a more efficient, more expensive switched-mode power supply, though an aftermarket replacement for the Valeo board does use one. Even an inefficient LED design will be far more efficient than an incandescent bulb, and the power requirement of any taillight is trivial relative to a modern car's electrical system. Linear makes the most sense for the application.Linear regulators aren't rare in LED flashlights nor is direct drive with PWM on a FET for low modes. Neither is good in flashlights, but that only matters to the manufacturer if their customers know the difference. Most customers don't; lights marketed to discerning customers use a switched-mode power supply.