Why new headlights are blinding American drivers

It's a problem everyone can see: today's LED headlights are so bright they're blinding other drivers at night. Yet somehow it keeps getting worse. Who's really to blame here, and why can't we stop it? Until the early 1990s, every car on the road used basic halogen headlights whose brightness was pretty consistent across the board, about 1,000 lumens. Then BMW introduced the first Xenon headlights in 1991 that could produce 8,000 lumens. Fast forward to today, and LED headlights are rated at 10,000 lumens, with some aftermarket bulbs putting out north of 50,000. But lumens are how we measure the total output that a light is capable of producing. Meanwhile, US federal regulations around headlight brightness are actually based on a different unit of measurement called candela, which is basically how intense the light is. Like we said, it's complicated. The main thing to know is that our regulations are written in a way that doesn’t actually prevent car companies from cranking up the overall brightness and relies on them to “self-certify” their own compliance. In 2016, a new incentive entered the mix: the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety started including headlights in its coveted Top Safety Pick evaluations. And the way the IIHS tests headlights basically boils down to how far down the road a car’s headlights can reach at night. As LED technology evolved, automakers began playing the game of how powerful they could make headlights to ace the IIHS’s tests while still (mostly) complying with federal regulations—which again, have nothing to do with how bright a headlight looks to you as the oncoming driver. Meanwhile, cheap LEDs also grew aftermarket headlights into a multi-billion dollar industry with even less regulation, flooding our roads with ill-fitting, poorly aimed, and dangerously bright lights. At this point, there’s only one thing that can save us: more technology. Specifically, the introduction of adaptive beam headlights, which use sensors to track the position of oncoming cars and shutters to block a headlight’s beam from hitting them and blinding drivers. It’s already common in places like Europe and Asia, but still years away from reaching America for the same reason we're in this mess: our screwed-up regulations. Produced by →   / joeyrassool   Hosted by →   / kylecheromcha   Previous episode →    • He secretly changed this freeway sign, hel...   The Drive is the chronicle of car culture. We write stories you actually want to read. → https://www.thedrive.com/ FOLLOW US! Instagram →   / thedrive   Facebook →   / thedrive   TikTok →   / thedrive_official   WORK WITH US → [email protected] 0:00 A big bright problem 0:46 From sealed beams to LEDs 3:06 Lumens vs lux vs candela 5:03 The IIHS incentive 6:55 The aftermarket 9:02 The only solution