this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2025
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In the last few years, car headlights seem to be much worse with glare. I don’t know if people no longer turn down their high beams, or if it’s raised trucks or aftermarket bulbs, or just shitty car design but it’s getting much tougher to see at night. And my teens complain more, so it’s not just me getting old

I’m looking for a way to improve my nighttime safety without adding to the problem.

Does anyone have experience with aftermarket LED bulbs for fog lights? Are they enough brighter to help see the road in the glare of oncoming high beams, while being enough lower to not just blind other drivers?

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[–] Sturgist@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

So it's not really high beams, at least that's what I've read, and also in my personal experience.
Low beam in modern cars has a height/angle adjustment, and cunts just pop it all the way up. It's not really "misalignment" so it never gets flagged by things like MOT in the UK. It's really just ignorance and being a dick mixed with newer cars having xenon or LED headlights.

I'm not sure fog lights will make the road any easier to see, but my car doesn't have any 😭 so idk for sure.
I have quite good low light vision, so oncoming headlights dazzle me pretty badly. What I find helps is looking at the passenger side of the road or lane, it gives me enough view to stay in my lane, and I'm not looking directly at oncoming cars so my vision isn't fucked.

The only other thing I can suggest is getting a taller vehicle, or a massive lift kit 🤣

Edit: Before buying aftermarket bulbs check what kind of lights you have, reflector or projector, and make sure you buy bulbs for the type you have. Also, aftermarket bulbs may not be legal in your area

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

My state has an annual inspection where checking headlight aim is one of the safety checks. If cars have misaligned headlights, the owner is a persistent cunt

[–] Sturgist@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's not actually a misalignment. It's an intentional feature to get better visibility further down the road but not in a situation that calls for high beams.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You’re telling me that aiming the headlights above the states safety limits is a feature? Making things slightly better for yourself at the expense of everyone else is a good thing?

[–] Sturgist@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

What? No, that's not what I'm saying at all!

I know it's the bad place, but this below is what I'm talking about:

https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnerDriverUK/comments/163iofl/explain_like_im_5_what_does_this_do/

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Huh, I’ve never seen this, or maybe never noticed it in any car I’ve used. Is this a truck thing? Cool feature but seems like it’d be abused more often than used

[–] Sturgist@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 weeks ago

Well, there's one in my VW Polo, so not just a truck thing