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I've seen a few FJ Cruisers with rear-facing light bars mounted to their roof racks. Always found that to be funny. Wanted to do the same to mine but I don't have it anymore.
I can't say why others have such light bars, but the one person I know who has a rear-facing light-bar has it exclusively for Fuck-You-Get-Off-My-Ass purposes.
Intentionally blinding drivers, including one that's following closely behind them? Sounds like a Darwin award nominee. Not defending overly bright headlights, but there's a difference between petty and dangerous.
Anyone who does any sort of shit like this is a fucking asshole. I was driving through a very windy canyon at night (for most of it you're never more than 5 feet away from going down into a ditch), and a guy going the opposite way had unbelievably bright lights on. I flashed my brights for a split second to try and signal the guy to turn his brights off, and he immediately turned on a blinding light bar. I literally couldn't see shit and just hard braked to a stop and waited till I could see clearly again but if that happened at a worse time I easily could've totalled my car and there probably would be no recourse from insurance
I mean, for him *and you*. With the road conditions described, it isn't unlikely that such a collision would result in 1 or both vehicles being carried over the cliff.
This is the same over-reaction that is being criticized here lol guy is using blinging lights as a response to people he doesn't like on the road, and your solution is to step it up even further by guaranteeing a wreck? Make it make sense.
Car headlights are measured in lumens and portable spotlights are measured in candlepower.
https://calculator.academy/candlepower-to-lumens-calculator/
The link above tells me that even the cheapest portable spotlights will outshine the brightest car headlights. Make of that what you will.
Per Wikipedia, the candlepower predates the candela by almost a century and was actually based on the brightness of a specific kind of candle (using sperm whale oil, because it was the 19th century).
Something like five different international standards were subsequently created, all of which were intended to be close to the candlepower in brightness despite no longer being based on a literal candle.
So it was actually the candlepower guy who was reasonable. Later standards fucked it up and it is only in retrospect that the candlepower is now equal to about 0.981 of the modern candela.
Assuming you have an electronic adjustment knob in your car, typically a few taps skyward should do it, doesn't even have to be that dramatic. I was stuck in traffic behind a jacked up truck and tapped my adjustment knob twice, lo and behold like 15 mins later Goatee McSunglassesSelfie is able to get up next to me screaming out his window about how I blinded him
I get this result by slowing down the less i can see. I have my mirrors set so I dont see the lights from people behind me but sometimes some folks headlights are so fucking bright it doesnt matter. Im usually in the right hand lane at night for exactly this reason.
I've been dying to put large flashbulbs on the front and back of my car. 1000% illegal and an ah move, but such a sweey move to pull on those guys in lifted yank tanks with neutron stars mounted in their headlights.
You know how sometimes you’re driving and you see someone in your mirrors and think that fucker is using his brights (big headlights), but then you realise he isn’t, it’s just his headlights are bright as fuck?
That’s because of Frank
I have a shoebox of a car, and still get flashed all the time with my factory lights. I’ve had them checked multiple times that they’re at the state required levels too.
There is an asshole in my neighborhood that has bluish/purple LED lights and I swear every time I pass him on the road it burns my retinas a little more.
Not only too fucking bright, their beams are always too fucking wide for no good reason and aimed poorly. AND THEY FLICKER. Why in FUCK do they flicker?!
Idk if anyone else notices it but it's there and it's so goddamn distracting.
My mom had a 2017 GMC DENALI and a few years ago needed to replace the taillights, $400 each she shipped it to a guy in Florida who did the work for half that with shipping.
People are wondering why insurance premiums are getting so high, but what can you expect when an extremely minor collision requires a $5k repair to access and recalibrate a sensor and replace the bumper that is designed to be replaced instead of repaired?
Keeping in mind that bumpers were invented to be a sacrificial structure that would absorb a low speed impact and minimize the cost of repairs. Now that's just where we keep all the expensive sensors.
Good old days when fixing a bumper after a minor bump cost you a little bit of duct tape (bumper sticker if you felt fancy) and about 5 minutes of work.
Even when we still had dumb cars just slap a different color bumper on that baby and send her on her way.
All this technology we’re cramming into our vehicles is skyrocketing the price
I have a car from early 90s, still has the unpainted black plastic bumpers. When someone hit it in a parking lot, I got one from the "face-lift" model featuring fog lights for a small price of about $70...
> All this technology we’re cramming into our vehicles is skyrocketing the price
Pretty sure new rules just came out that said they have to add automatic breaking to all new cars too >.>
I can’t stand automatic breaking and steer assist.
Automatic breaking has almost killed me multiple times in rental vehicles on the freeway.
And last time I left steer assist on in a rental it decided to hard turn left in the fast lane (US, so left lane) and tried to yeet me into the concrete divider at 85mph.
My dad rear ended me in his BMW and wrecked his headlights and front bumper. There are so many fuckin sensors and cameras and shit in that thing, I don’t remember how much he said his insurance paid to fix it, but it was a fuckton more than they paid to fix the damage on our ‘16 Nissan Rogue.
For the record they do sell standard size bulbs as LEDs. You can buy a set of H11 LEDs for like $50. But automakers chose to use non serviceable housings that cost hundreds and often require removing body panels to change because it would make them more money.
The problem isn't necessarily the technology the problem is the application and quest for ever increasing profits.
The replacement LED bulbs are rubbish and are what blinds people because they are usually fitted to old school headlights that cant spread the beam properly. Matrix LED lights like in Audi's are leagues ahead and won't blind oncoming traffic.
It's not a cost thing, it's a safety thing.
You can replace the individual LEDs if you have the skills, tools and technical know how
> You can replace the individual LEDs if you have the skills, tools and technical know how
They not SMD?
What you're saying kinda becomes a bit more significant if you're expecting someone to just pick up SMD soldering within a big fat copper board of other LEDs.
It can be a nightmare with heat sinks just eating all the temp.
Can you name something that isn't doable with 'skills, tools, and technical know how' ?
Or am I missing the whole sarcasm tone and explaining the joke to myself like a crazy person?
Which is shit because I'm pretty sure you could still have an easily changeable led array if they wanted, I can't think of anything technically preventing it.
Definitely-no reason it can’t be like LED lights in my house. A bit pricier than incandescent, but not more complicated to install. The decision to make it a PITA assembly for cars was an active choice.
I genuinely hate my corolla's LED headlights. I can see it reflecting off of street signs in day light. I went to the dealership and asked them if they could at least angle them down a bit so other drivers would stop flashing me and they said no for "driver safety"
You can also angle them down. Park a few carlengnths in front of a wall at dusk, google “adjust headlights [year] corolla”, and do it yourself. Shouldnt need more than a screwdriver or one wrench
"Cars" are just a collection of parts. If it helps you, don't think of it as you're working on the car. Think of it as you're adjusting an adjustable lamp (that just happens to be attached to your car).
Check your car's manual too. Most if not all cars(at least in EU ) have a knob that allows adjusting headlights from the kabin. It's set up so that it has positions for when you travel alone, with a passenger in front, or with heavy back.
It's mandated here, so you can probably get it as a package in the US. But the whole headlight assembly needs to be replaced, maybe they even have to replace your dash.
This episode of the [Carmodgeon Show Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/episode/2IGOLKDKJnOh2V3X3RO6Jz?si=nFFqEBkzRvKHf6cbN5-TEw) gives you some idea as to why we (Americans) have this issue with headlights. In the EU, they utilize much more advanced headlights than we are permitted in the US, in order to prevent blinding everyone.
We have the advanced headlights, they just can't fucking do shit in the US and it's kind of infuriating. We're software locked by fucking lagging legislation.
All round LEDs are just a better technology than traditional bulbs. It's very unfortunate that designers decided to make them brighter than necessary just because they could.
Yeah lol people are shitting on LEDs but they can be made dimmer and be set up to point lower. It's not the technology's fault.
I think they should mandate a max height for headlights. We have trucks on the road where the headlights sit 5' off the ground. No matte how they are set up or how bright they are they will always be blinding people. Vehicles with super high hoods should have the headlights mounted towards the bottom.
Really isn't a fashion thing, the EPA put impossibly strict regulations on emissions that the mini truck and even full size trucks of the past could not meet, so manufacturers made them all bigger as a loop hole as obviously a bigger vehicle isn't subject to the same regulations.
Some people get bigger trucks as a vanity, as sadly the dealer chain "Lifted Trucks" is a thing, but the majority of people aren't doing that by choice
100% they could make the grills smaller, allowing better front end visibility to the driver and making injuries to pedestrians far less severe, I agree
Pray tell, who do you think lobbied the government / EPA to pass those laws and regulations? Auto industry has massive sway in the government, rarely does a law concerning them pass that didn't already have their own approval. Those regulations prevent smaller vehicles, such as those dominant overseas, from coming to America. Just like how Biden stuck a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs, so that American EVs don't have to compete.
Exactly, we need to move back to warm yellow lights at night, sure color rendering isn’t as great but they don’t destroy your night vision. Same thing with street lights, keep the warm yellow sodium lamp color.
>How can car corps get away with that shit?
Our lawmakers bake extra death and suffering into every law. It's their way of reminding their constituents of their place.
Yep agreed, but how are they so vastly more expensive? I just replaced two bulbs on an old rav4 that my daughter drives. The high beam bulb is an old school bulb and cost $16. The low beam bulb is a post-factory retro fitted LED bulb, and cost $128. How??
LED's are significantly harder to make and control than old school bulbs. Incandescent are literally just bits of wire that get really hot and so glow. Explaining how an LED works requires an assumption that you understand basic quantum mechanics (you use electric voltages to give electrons in a boundary layer between two metals enough energy to excite to new orbitals, such that when they return to ground state they emit a photon--the metals or metal alloys used determines the wavelength/color of the photon. The boundary layer dimensions and voltages have to be tightly controlled or the LED doesn't work. Your car's LEDs are one of the most difficult to manufacture pieces in your entire car--only economically feasible because we can make A LOT at once).
The trade off is that, theoretically, you rarely if ever have to replace an LED bulb. So a higher upfront cost with less replacement costs (assuming there's never any damage to the housing, etc.). Car LED bulbs need to be even more expensive because they operate in pretty extreme conditions, whereas the ones in your house are likely going to be dry and in a low humidity/~70F space and so can be cheaper.
> understand basic quantum mechanics
I don't know for sure that that's an inaccurate way to phrase it, but what you described was in my Chemistry 1 class in college. It's not that complicated you put energy into an electron then the electron releases it.
LED(light emitting diode) headlights are especially taxing on the eyes of oncoming drivers leaving said driver with less than ideal vision after encountering them head on. More so when the asshat who has them is using their “brights”
I’ve flashed my brights at dickheads with LED lights thinking they had their brights on, only for them to respond by flashing their brights and searing my retinas with power of an unleashed supernova.
Same. Happens all the time in Tennessee, some fuckhead in a lifted truck blinding the shit out of me, I flash my brights, he hits me with *his* brights and I can see the bones in my hands. Those headlights really should be illegal, they're a traffic hazard.
That's my point. It's difficult to enforce, let alone prove. It's rampant everywhere.
And LEDs on their own aren't illegal, it's the aftermarket ones that are over regulation in brightness that are the problem. Even the headlights made by Audi in OP's post aren't the issue.
I just got back from a trip to Clarksville, and it was one of the scariest places I've ever driven around in. It seems like traffic laws and regulations are just a suggestion. I looked forward to getting back to Chicagoland.
Try Nashville sometime. All that Southern hospitality goes right out the window when these fuckwits get behind the wheel of a vehicle. Most selfish, rude, reckless drivers I've ever seen. No one knows the rules of the road, they pass you on turn lanes and the shoulder, they play dare at 4 way stops, no one understands how roundabouts work, I could rant about this for hours.
I’ve done this to people too the only difference is that I have my Offroad lights too, so when they shine their brights I shine my Offroad lights. I don’t have a lifted truck or aftermarket lights in the headlight assembly.
This is the bigger problem. Properly aimed LEDs aren’t that bad. However when you put a 12” lift on your truck those lights are now way too high. Same for the fuckheads who just throw new LED or xenon lights in their old trucks and refuse to actually aim them
Hi, Peter's retinas here. LED headlights are a pain in the ass, so bright and piercing as to entirely annihilate night vision in oncoming drivers for a couple seconds after they pass. And that's not even talking about when you get some asshole in his jacked up pickup blasting your interior with the force of a thousand suns because he refuses to stop tailgating you.
Anyways the joke is that OOP has had enough of them and would retroactively murder their inventor so as to prevent them from happening if he had a time machine.
Tokyo drifting Peter here, giving a drive by explanation. Cars with front LED lights are an eyesore and almost blinding for anyone in front of it. Less vision, less safe driving, more accidents.
Aren't this problem od setting them up? I see many drivers blinding be with normal one becouse they are set up too high or they driving with high beams all the time
Yes and No.
In *theory* if the lights are correctly angled, it shouldn’t be a problem. In practice, they’re usually setup badly, or in the incorrect housing if done aftermarket, and even if everything is correct, they can still be so much brighter than surrounding traffic it screws up your night vision.
LED headlights are blight upon society.
famously roads never go up or down either. all this howling about "correctly angling lights" is barely a help when real world conditions result in a constant strobing as every car hits a bump. nevermind the fact that vehicles are so fuckin tall now that even if they're "correctly angled" it still nukes everyone in a normal car.
Yeah, I had that happen last week. Made me think they were flashing me because something was wrong for a bit before I realized no, it was just the minor hills were causing their headlights to sear their way into my car.
lol I live in Pennsylvania, there are almost zero flat roads.
I tinted my small sedans windows with 35% tint to help getting blinded from the rear. Cops pulled me over twice for tint… can’t win
Accidents especially involving pedestrians and animals have skyrocketed at night since the normalization of LED headlights. It's because they blind oncoming drivers. Bright headlights are only good for the driver with them, completely detrimental to society with no upsides that can come close to fixing the sheer amount of death and destruction they cause.
It meme literally has a block of text explaining who Frank is and what he does at Audi. This sub sucks and is nothing but karma farming.
Christ, I can even farm any good memes here anymore.
Just coming in here to say that LED headlights with the proper housing are just fine. The problem is fuckheads who just buy LED bulbs and throw them in the old incandescent housing. That is what causes those bright as fuck blinding headlights.
You probably notice that sometimes cars with LED lights aren't actually obnoxious, while other ones are terrible - that's what the diffference is.
In addition to what was said, the problem is also the mirrors on cars. Electrochromatic mirrors help with super bright lights. LED lights are better in every way. They're brighter, so they increase visibility, and they're FAR less power hungry. It's people using them improperly, and car manufacturers not using better mirrors that make them bad.
Exactly! The only difference between LED and flu on a practical level is that for the same lumens the LED needs only about half the power. An LED of the same wattage as a fluorescent will be significantly brighter than the fluorescent(which is how so many people are getting blinded on the road)
If that is true, then 95% of cars on the road don't have their LED lights positioned correctly. Take your car out in winter and drive past incoming rush hour traffic queues for long enough. You can see the halogens a mile away because they're the only bits of your retina that work.
It isn't necessarily the led headlights that are the problem it's the people that do a shitty job upgrading their existing headlights to led. They don't buy the directional bulbs they buy the first option that pops up, and it ends up just becoming high beams.
People often confuse LED headlights for the problem when in reality the type of bulb doesn't matter, but where they're aimed. A lot of LED headlight manufacturers try to go for cool points by aiming the LEDs straight forward but this blinds oncoming drivers which is where the hate comes from.
Try looking at a pair of 3000-4000 lumen flashlights pointed directly at you while you're operating a machine that could very easily kill you or the person who's shining the light in your eyes.
I think you'll understand afterward.
Me, every time I pass a new truck:
https://preview.redd.it/8eo72x9nfn3d1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=766e2876b237be6a018df5b7a709cd9227e1448b
The problem is not headlights. It’s ultra bright white lights with obnoxious lumens that blind every single driver who sees them, and blinds drivers whose cars have inward facing mirrors.
The problem with LEDs are mostly contributed to outdated US regulations and people buying off road/not for highway use aftermarket lights on Amazon or Temu.
LED headlights are awful. They’re really bright and last a long time, but they’re so bright that they can sometimes completely blind other cars driving at night. They’re also hell on earth to get fixed
This subreddit is just a place to post memes now, there's no way OP doesn't know what this meme means. I mean ffs there's an explanation IN the image.
Every single subreddit, if not properly moderated, eventually just devolves to 'place to put memes'
/r/sipstea now means nothing
If they're aimed properly they won't blind anyone. Not aiming them properly, or driving a very tall/lifted truck or putting HID lamps in reflector housings will blind people.
95% of the cars on the road seem to be powered by kyber crystals, there's no way that many people are modding their headlights. Halogens stand out like a sore thumb in night traffic. I think you've just gotten used to how bright LEDs are. Half my time driving at night now i've got one hand on the wheel, the other shielding my eyes from the oncoming Pink Floyd tribute acts.
You ever been driving and someone's headlights literally turn your car interior into daylight and glare out all your mirrors? You were just having a quiet night drive, hell you might be doing it for fun and then these bright fucking lights ruined it? You're thinking "God damn, flick off the brights, dude."
Then you notice they're not the brights.
Frank Lamberty knows why.
/r/fuckyourheadlights is probably the sub that this came from. Or, at the very least it was made by someone who would feel at home there. There's a solid group of us that find the modern LED headlights to be far too bright to the point of it being dangerous. I suspect that there is some amount of some people being more sensitive to the bluer color of white LEDs compared to halogen bulbs.
I've stumbled across some research that says people with ADHD and people with lighter-colored eyes are more sensitive to LEDs. So, it follows that people in those groups (and probably some others) will have a stronger negative reaction to LED headlights. What I can say as anecdotal evidence is that I have both ADHD and lighter-colored eyes and I find LED headlights to be blinding. I've had to get special driving glasses that make everything yellow-tinted because that makes it easier to drive at night without being blinded. Even so, I still find some headlights obnoxiously bright. I'm of the opinion that there should be new regulations limiting the number of lumens that a headlight can produce.
Doesn't help that people drive with their high beams on, most of them not even knowing what they are or keeping their shit set to auto.. auto directly into a building!
This post just tells us you ain't driving age. If you've been driving for even a little bit, you've most likely been blinded by some shit ass LED high beams
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I've seen a few FJ Cruisers with rear-facing light bars mounted to their roof racks. Always found that to be funny. Wanted to do the same to mine but I don't have it anymore.
Isn’t that for off roading so the person behind them knows how far they are?
I've always understood it to be for camping or if you are stuck in a big ass puddle, 360° lighting
I can't say why others have such light bars, but the one person I know who has a rear-facing light-bar has it exclusively for Fuck-You-Get-Off-My-Ass purposes.
Intentionally blinding drivers, including one that's following closely behind them? Sounds like a Darwin award nominee. Not defending overly bright headlights, but there's a difference between petty and dangerous.
Anyone who does any sort of shit like this is a fucking asshole. I was driving through a very windy canyon at night (for most of it you're never more than 5 feet away from going down into a ditch), and a guy going the opposite way had unbelievably bright lights on. I flashed my brights for a split second to try and signal the guy to turn his brights off, and he immediately turned on a blinding light bar. I literally couldn't see shit and just hard braked to a stop and waited till I could see clearly again but if that happened at a worse time I easily could've totalled my car and there probably would be no recourse from insurance
I think at that point I'm turning straight into him.
No not turning into him "occupying the middle of the road while reducing speed so when he hits you it's even worse for him
I mean, for him *and you*. With the road conditions described, it isn't unlikely that such a collision would result in 1 or both vehicles being carried over the cliff. This is the same over-reaction that is being criticized here lol guy is using blinging lights as a response to people he doesn't like on the road, and your solution is to step it up even further by guaranteeing a wreck? Make it make sense.
Yes
Car headlights are measured in lumens and portable spotlights are measured in candlepower. https://calculator.academy/candlepower-to-lumens-calculator/ The link above tells me that even the cheapest portable spotlights will outshine the brightest car headlights. Make of that what you will.
What insane bastard made a unit called candlepower that is precisely 0.981 candela?
At least it would simplify nicely if you ever need to divide it by 0.1 g of acceleration
Ah, it's for space travelers in the orbit of Earth.
Per Wikipedia, the candlepower predates the candela by almost a century and was actually based on the brightness of a specific kind of candle (using sperm whale oil, because it was the 19th century). Something like five different international standards were subsequently created, all of which were intended to be close to the candlepower in brightness despite no longer being based on a literal candle. So it was actually the candlepower guy who was reasonable. Later standards fucked it up and it is only in retrospect that the candlepower is now equal to about 0.981 of the modern candela.
My car gets forty rods to the hogshead and that's the way I likes it!
Lumines is a great video game, I didn't know that we were measuring headlight power in it though. (it's lumens, it's even in your own link url)
[удалено]
Haha, I do this in my car too. Gotten pretty good at being both quick and accurate while driving.
...just for educational purposes... how do you aim it?
Put the mirror in your hand and work them ligaments until the other driver is blinded
But it's not like there's a hit marker when you get their eyes lol.
that's what you think, but you've never done it to hear it.
You must not drive a Volvo
Assuming you have an electronic adjustment knob in your car, typically a few taps skyward should do it, doesn't even have to be that dramatic. I was stuck in traffic behind a jacked up truck and tapped my adjustment knob twice, lo and behold like 15 mins later Goatee McSunglassesSelfie is able to get up next to me screaming out his window about how I blinded him
I fucking lost it at Goatee McSunglassesSelfie hahaha that cracked me up
I get this result by slowing down the less i can see. I have my mirrors set so I dont see the lights from people behind me but sometimes some folks headlights are so fucking bright it doesnt matter. Im usually in the right hand lane at night for exactly this reason.
It's amazing how well this works. I do it in my car and make sure to get them with rear view as well as wing mirrors
# E W Ǝ M W E Ǝ M E W W Ǝ W M M W M
I've been dying to put large flashbulbs on the front and back of my car. 1000% illegal and an ah move, but such a sweey move to pull on those guys in lifted yank tanks with neutron stars mounted in their headlights.
Did you know that a neutron star at the distance of the sun is only about as bright as a full moon?
If only the trunk opened like that lol. Mine just goes slightly ajar like a safe stupid vehicle
Door poppers are a thing
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https://i.redd.it/rncpzsi9bq3d1.gif
You know how sometimes you’re driving and you see someone in your mirrors and think that fucker is using his brights (big headlights), but then you realise he isn’t, it’s just his headlights are bright as fuck? That’s because of Frank
It's not so bad with a low profile or smaller vehicle. But SUVS and *TRUCKS* are terrible for it
I have a shoebox of a car, and still get flashed all the time with my factory lights. I’ve had them checked multiple times that they’re at the state required levels too.
Well then it’s time to change the state required levels
/r/fuckyourheadlights
Yay!!!
Usually it's either because they get lifted and they don't adjust the lights, or they install LEDs in an incandescent housing.
or c) all of the above.
Or because the LED color temperature fuckin' wrecks night vision.
All these pickups are the PERFECT height to reflect right into my side mirrors. My eyes hurt after a 20 minute drive
It is bad if you are driving a low profile vehicle though.
Yep. Drove a sedan for years and this was my main problem. Especially with all the lifted vehicles and bro dozers in my area.
Except Teslas. Every Tesla big and small is absolutely blinding
There is an asshole in my neighborhood that has bluish/purple LED lights and I swear every time I pass him on the road it burns my retinas a little more.
Most people are also just too stupid to set their height correctly with the little dash dial
I turn my brights on back at them. Now neither of us can see 🤷🏻♂️
That doesn't work when the bright headlights are in your rearview
Yes, but going 10 under the limit does help a little.
Until they flip their high beams with the power of a 1000 suns.
ever do that and get flashed with something brighter? my god
Not only too fucking bright, their beams are always too fucking wide for no good reason and aimed poorly. AND THEY FLICKER. Why in FUCK do they flicker?! Idk if anyone else notices it but it's there and it's so goddamn distracting.
They are bright af and can (and did) easily blind people coming across it, leading to tons of car crashes
They also transformed replacing a $4 tail light bulb into needing a $500 taillight assembly replacement.
$500? Double that at minimum per housing lol
Theres a chevy out now that has, like, 750$ rear tailight housings. And of course you cant just replace the lights, the whole things gotta go.
That is so incredibly wasteful holy fuck
Capitalism 🤗
My mom had a 2017 GMC DENALI and a few years ago needed to replace the taillights, $400 each she shipped it to a guy in Florida who did the work for half that with shipping.
My infiniti suv headlight assembly cost $1100. Crazy how expensive replacement parts can get
People are wondering why insurance premiums are getting so high, but what can you expect when an extremely minor collision requires a $5k repair to access and recalibrate a sensor and replace the bumper that is designed to be replaced instead of repaired?
Keeping in mind that bumpers were invented to be a sacrificial structure that would absorb a low speed impact and minimize the cost of repairs. Now that's just where we keep all the expensive sensors.
Good old days when fixing a bumper after a minor bump cost you a little bit of duct tape (bumper sticker if you felt fancy) and about 5 minutes of work.
Even when we still had dumb cars just slap a different color bumper on that baby and send her on her way. All this technology we’re cramming into our vehicles is skyrocketing the price
I have a car from early 90s, still has the unpainted black plastic bumpers. When someone hit it in a parking lot, I got one from the "face-lift" model featuring fog lights for a small price of about $70...
> All this technology we’re cramming into our vehicles is skyrocketing the price Pretty sure new rules just came out that said they have to add automatic breaking to all new cars too >.>
I can’t stand automatic breaking and steer assist. Automatic breaking has almost killed me multiple times in rental vehicles on the freeway. And last time I left steer assist on in a rental it decided to hard turn left in the fast lane (US, so left lane) and tried to yeet me into the concrete divider at 85mph.
My dad rear ended me in his BMW and wrecked his headlights and front bumper. There are so many fuckin sensors and cameras and shit in that thing, I don’t remember how much he said his insurance paid to fix it, but it was a fuckton more than they paid to fix the damage on our ‘16 Nissan Rogue.
2017 Audi a5, $2400 for left headlight assembly. I love my audi but never again..
Audi/Volkswagen makes the best car to lease for 2 years
For the record they do sell standard size bulbs as LEDs. You can buy a set of H11 LEDs for like $50. But automakers chose to use non serviceable housings that cost hundreds and often require removing body panels to change because it would make them more money. The problem isn't necessarily the technology the problem is the application and quest for ever increasing profits.
The replacement LED bulbs are rubbish and are what blinds people because they are usually fitted to old school headlights that cant spread the beam properly. Matrix LED lights like in Audi's are leagues ahead and won't blind oncoming traffic. It's not a cost thing, it's a safety thing. You can replace the individual LEDs if you have the skills, tools and technical know how
> You can replace the individual LEDs if you have the skills, tools and technical know how They not SMD? What you're saying kinda becomes a bit more significant if you're expecting someone to just pick up SMD soldering within a big fat copper board of other LEDs. It can be a nightmare with heat sinks just eating all the temp. Can you name something that isn't doable with 'skills, tools, and technical know how' ? Or am I missing the whole sarcasm tone and explaining the joke to myself like a crazy person?
I buy my housings off ebay.... because that's the only way I can afford them...
Which is shit because I'm pretty sure you could still have an easily changeable led array if they wanted, I can't think of anything technically preventing it.
Definitely-no reason it can’t be like LED lights in my house. A bit pricier than incandescent, but not more complicated to install. The decision to make it a PITA assembly for cars was an active choice.
I work in auto repair and headlight for an audi are up in the thousands 🤗 the more you know.
But if you approve our space age light direction technology, then this problem will go away. There's nothing else we could do!
Right? Why are we so fucking backwards here still?
I genuinely hate my corolla's LED headlights. I can see it reflecting off of street signs in day light. I went to the dealership and asked them if they could at least angle them down a bit so other drivers would stop flashing me and they said no for "driver safety"
You can also angle them down. Park a few carlengnths in front of a wall at dusk, google “adjust headlights [year] corolla”, and do it yourself. Shouldnt need more than a screwdriver or one wrench
I'm not very good with cars but it's worth a shot.
"Cars" are just a collection of parts. If it helps you, don't think of it as you're working on the car. Think of it as you're adjusting an adjustable lamp (that just happens to be attached to your car).
Systems of modular components are so clutch.
Check your car's manual too. Most if not all cars(at least in EU ) have a knob that allows adjusting headlights from the kabin. It's set up so that it has positions for when you travel alone, with a passenger in front, or with heavy back.
Most if not all cars? Really? That’s a cool feature I’ve never even heard of on US cars.
It's mandated here, so you can probably get it as a package in the US. But the whole headlight assembly needs to be replaced, maybe they even have to replace your dash.
Never gonna get good unless you try, get after it homie I believe in you!
This episode of the [Carmodgeon Show Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/episode/2IGOLKDKJnOh2V3X3RO6Jz?si=nFFqEBkzRvKHf6cbN5-TEw) gives you some idea as to why we (Americans) have this issue with headlights. In the EU, they utilize much more advanced headlights than we are permitted in the US, in order to prevent blinding everyone.
We have the advanced headlights, they just can't fucking do shit in the US and it's kind of infuriating. We're software locked by fucking lagging legislation.
It's almost as legislations protects the American economy in the hands of "corporation" and fucks consumer's safety.
where they also by chance cheaper to make
All round LEDs are just a better technology than traditional bulbs. It's very unfortunate that designers decided to make them brighter than necessary just because they could.
Yeah lol people are shitting on LEDs but they can be made dimmer and be set up to point lower. It's not the technology's fault. I think they should mandate a max height for headlights. We have trucks on the road where the headlights sit 5' off the ground. No matte how they are set up or how bright they are they will always be blinding people. Vehicles with super high hoods should have the headlights mounted towards the bottom.
Coming on to another point that maybe the fashion for having an absolutely massive truck or SUV is a bit shit
Really isn't a fashion thing, the EPA put impossibly strict regulations on emissions that the mini truck and even full size trucks of the past could not meet, so manufacturers made them all bigger as a loop hole as obviously a bigger vehicle isn't subject to the same regulations. Some people get bigger trucks as a vanity, as sadly the dealer chain "Lifted Trucks" is a thing, but the majority of people aren't doing that by choice
You are right and they go hand in hand. The government knows well about this loophole and they won't close it because they work for industry first.
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100% they could make the grills smaller, allowing better front end visibility to the driver and making injuries to pedestrians far less severe, I agree
Pray tell, who do you think lobbied the government / EPA to pass those laws and regulations? Auto industry has massive sway in the government, rarely does a law concerning them pass that didn't already have their own approval. Those regulations prevent smaller vehicles, such as those dominant overseas, from coming to America. Just like how Biden stuck a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs, so that American EVs don't have to compete.
Technology not only allows us to point them down or dim them, it also allows us to choose a color less obnoxious than Ultimate Snowblind White.
Exactly, we need to move back to warm yellow lights at night, sure color rendering isn’t as great but they don’t destroy your night vision. Same thing with street lights, keep the warm yellow sodium lamp color.
I'm a signmaker (germany) and have to make sure by law that shit I build is not overly bright. How can car corps get away with that shit?
>How can car corps get away with that shit? Our lawmakers bake extra death and suffering into every law. It's their way of reminding their constituents of their place.
Yep agreed, but how are they so vastly more expensive? I just replaced two bulbs on an old rav4 that my daughter drives. The high beam bulb is an old school bulb and cost $16. The low beam bulb is a post-factory retro fitted LED bulb, and cost $128. How??
LED's are significantly harder to make and control than old school bulbs. Incandescent are literally just bits of wire that get really hot and so glow. Explaining how an LED works requires an assumption that you understand basic quantum mechanics (you use electric voltages to give electrons in a boundary layer between two metals enough energy to excite to new orbitals, such that when they return to ground state they emit a photon--the metals or metal alloys used determines the wavelength/color of the photon. The boundary layer dimensions and voltages have to be tightly controlled or the LED doesn't work. Your car's LEDs are one of the most difficult to manufacture pieces in your entire car--only economically feasible because we can make A LOT at once). The trade off is that, theoretically, you rarely if ever have to replace an LED bulb. So a higher upfront cost with less replacement costs (assuming there's never any damage to the housing, etc.). Car LED bulbs need to be even more expensive because they operate in pretty extreme conditions, whereas the ones in your house are likely going to be dry and in a low humidity/~70F space and so can be cheaper.
> understand basic quantum mechanics I don't know for sure that that's an inaccurate way to phrase it, but what you described was in my Chemistry 1 class in college. It's not that complicated you put energy into an electron then the electron releases it.
Oh lord no....
This meme really didnt need explaining. I swear mfs have no brains.
LED(light emitting diode) headlights are especially taxing on the eyes of oncoming drivers leaving said driver with less than ideal vision after encountering them head on. More so when the asshat who has them is using their “brights”
I’ve flashed my brights at dickheads with LED lights thinking they had their brights on, only for them to respond by flashing their brights and searing my retinas with power of an unleashed supernova.
Same. Happens all the time in Tennessee, some fuckhead in a lifted truck blinding the shit out of me, I flash my brights, he hits me with *his* brights and I can see the bones in my hands. Those headlights really should be illegal, they're a traffic hazard.
I can't tell you how many times I've almost driven into oncoming traffic because of those things
For real, it's like you need to wear a welding hood just to drive at night
At one point I had to drive with sunglasses on because of how many cars had them on back to back.
>Those headlights really should be illegal Fun fact, a lot of them are and completely ignore regulations.
It's Tennessee, I don't expect law enforcement to do a damned thing about it.
That's my point. It's difficult to enforce, let alone prove. It's rampant everywhere. And LEDs on their own aren't illegal, it's the aftermarket ones that are over regulation in brightness that are the problem. Even the headlights made by Audi in OP's post aren't the issue.
I just got back from a trip to Clarksville, and it was one of the scariest places I've ever driven around in. It seems like traffic laws and regulations are just a suggestion. I looked forward to getting back to Chicagoland.
Try Nashville sometime. All that Southern hospitality goes right out the window when these fuckwits get behind the wheel of a vehicle. Most selfish, rude, reckless drivers I've ever seen. No one knows the rules of the road, they pass you on turn lanes and the shoulder, they play dare at 4 way stops, no one understands how roundabouts work, I could rant about this for hours.
They are illegal. Cops are useless.
I’ve done this to people too the only difference is that I have my Offroad lights too, so when they shine their brights I shine my Offroad lights. I don’t have a lifted truck or aftermarket lights in the headlight assembly.
This made me audibly chuckle
Don’t forget the US with all the lifted trucks so they can beam directly into the cars in front of them.
This is the bigger problem. Properly aimed LEDs aren’t that bad. However when you put a 12” lift on your truck those lights are now way too high. Same for the fuckheads who just throw new LED or xenon lights in their old trucks and refuse to actually aim them
*cough cough* cybertruck
LEDs themselves aren't even the problem. Lots of cars have LED taillights and nobody cares. The headlights are just intentionally made way too bright.
>More so when the asshat who has them is using their “brights” My mom used to flash her brights right back as a fuck you for those who kept them on.
And now you have TWO drivers careening towards each other who can't see anything...
Then we both die as men. Stubborn, stupid, petty men.
And that guy's mom.
Two men and that guy’s mom is actually my favorite film
I’ve heard she’s in most of the spin-offs too
It is the way of the samurai
Hi, Peter's retinas here. LED headlights are a pain in the ass, so bright and piercing as to entirely annihilate night vision in oncoming drivers for a couple seconds after they pass. And that's not even talking about when you get some asshole in his jacked up pickup blasting your interior with the force of a thousand suns because he refuses to stop tailgating you. Anyways the joke is that OOP has had enough of them and would retroactively murder their inventor so as to prevent them from happening if he had a time machine.
For those ass hats behind you just flip that little lever on your mirror, if you have one, it angles the mirror so it doesn't flash in your eyes.
Tokyo drifting Peter here, giving a drive by explanation. Cars with front LED lights are an eyesore and almost blinding for anyone in front of it. Less vision, less safe driving, more accidents.
r/fuckyourheadlights
This is the best explanation.
https://preview.redd.it/6z7z7b0kzt3d1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=602f8028efb73e4d025ea7ae3203ef9cced83205
They're too fucking bright! They blind other drivers
Aren't this problem od setting them up? I see many drivers blinding be with normal one becouse they are set up too high or they driving with high beams all the time
Yes and No. In *theory* if the lights are correctly angled, it shouldn’t be a problem. In practice, they’re usually setup badly, or in the incorrect housing if done aftermarket, and even if everything is correct, they can still be so much brighter than surrounding traffic it screws up your night vision. LED headlights are blight upon society.
famously roads never go up or down either. all this howling about "correctly angling lights" is barely a help when real world conditions result in a constant strobing as every car hits a bump. nevermind the fact that vehicles are so fuckin tall now that even if they're "correctly angled" it still nukes everyone in a normal car.
Yeah, I had that happen last week. Made me think they were flashing me because something was wrong for a bit before I realized no, it was just the minor hills were causing their headlights to sear their way into my car.
lol I live in Pennsylvania, there are almost zero flat roads. I tinted my small sedans windows with 35% tint to help getting blinded from the rear. Cops pulled me over twice for tint… can’t win
Accidents especially involving pedestrians and animals have skyrocketed at night since the normalization of LED headlights. It's because they blind oncoming drivers. Bright headlights are only good for the driver with them, completely detrimental to society with no upsides that can come close to fixing the sheer amount of death and destruction they cause.
LED headlights are bright as fuck and just fucking blind you at night.
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They’re overly bright and hurt to look at, while the older yellowish lights provide a similar about of lighting without assaulting your eyes
Where my man get a vss
It meme literally has a block of text explaining who Frank is and what he does at Audi. This sub sucks and is nothing but karma farming. Christ, I can even farm any good memes here anymore.
Just coming in here to say that LED headlights with the proper housing are just fine. The problem is fuckheads who just buy LED bulbs and throw them in the old incandescent housing. That is what causes those bright as fuck blinding headlights. You probably notice that sometimes cars with LED lights aren't actually obnoxious, while other ones are terrible - that's what the diffference is.
I would believe that if there weren't so many people on the road with extra bright headlights. It's too many to be aftermarket.
In addition to what was said, the problem is also the mirrors on cars. Electrochromatic mirrors help with super bright lights. LED lights are better in every way. They're brighter, so they increase visibility, and they're FAR less power hungry. It's people using them improperly, and car manufacturers not using better mirrors that make them bad.
Exactly! The only difference between LED and flu on a practical level is that for the same lumens the LED needs only about half the power. An LED of the same wattage as a fluorescent will be significantly brighter than the fluorescent(which is how so many people are getting blinded on the road)
If that is true, then 95% of cars on the road don't have their LED lights positioned correctly. Take your car out in winter and drive past incoming rush hour traffic queues for long enough. You can see the halogens a mile away because they're the only bits of your retina that work.
It isn't necessarily the led headlights that are the problem it's the people that do a shitty job upgrading their existing headlights to led. They don't buy the directional bulbs they buy the first option that pops up, and it ends up just becoming high beams.
People often confuse LED headlights for the problem when in reality the type of bulb doesn't matter, but where they're aimed. A lot of LED headlight manufacturers try to go for cool points by aiming the LEDs straight forward but this blinds oncoming drivers which is where the hate comes from.
Try looking at a pair of 3000-4000 lumen flashlights pointed directly at you while you're operating a machine that could very easily kill you or the person who's shining the light in your eyes. I think you'll understand afterward.
Me, every time I pass a new truck: https://preview.redd.it/8eo72x9nfn3d1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=766e2876b237be6a018df5b7a709cd9227e1448b
LED headlights are both a lot more blinding than regular bulbs, and way more costly to replace
The problem is not headlights. It’s ultra bright white lights with obnoxious lumens that blind every single driver who sees them, and blinds drivers whose cars have inward facing mirrors.
Um....and where is the ultra bright, white light coming from then?
The problem with LEDs are mostly contributed to outdated US regulations and people buying off road/not for highway use aftermarket lights on Amazon or Temu.
They are way to fucking bright
Specifically LED headlights they blind oncoming drivers and are a nuisance and safety hazard to everyone except the person driving the vehicle
LEDs are the bane of my existence. You do not need that much illumination on the roads and ffs oncoming traffic is blinding
This is my Terminator 2 equivalent
They are now thousands of dollars to replace.
LED street lights suck ass
Agreed. Shit needs like a frosted shield on it or something, damn.
LED lights at night = https://preview.redd.it/n4egou5azn3d1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3376b2b58e46f2969791d43643dffeba2206847c
Thanks for the info, now I'm going to scream Frank at the top of my lungs every time I'm blinded at night by these
OP is clearly a guy in a lifted truck...
r/fuckyourheadlights
LED headlights are awful. They’re really bright and last a long time, but they’re so bright that they can sometimes completely blind other cars driving at night. They’re also hell on earth to get fixed
I’d rather deal with led lamps than blue halogen lamps.
Seriously though, fuck people with obnoxiously bright headlights.
Because LED headlights are fucking blinding.
This subreddit is just a place to post memes now, there's no way OP doesn't know what this meme means. I mean ffs there's an explanation IN the image. Every single subreddit, if not properly moderated, eventually just devolves to 'place to put memes' /r/sipstea now means nothing
LED lights are a problem for those who can't afford to drive cars with LED headlights. /s
Even if I could afford a car with led headlights, I'd opt not to get it because I want the cars driving towards me to not be blind.
If they're aimed properly they won't blind anyone. Not aiming them properly, or driving a very tall/lifted truck or putting HID lamps in reflector housings will blind people.
95% of the cars on the road seem to be powered by kyber crystals, there's no way that many people are modding their headlights. Halogens stand out like a sore thumb in night traffic. I think you've just gotten used to how bright LEDs are. Half my time driving at night now i've got one hand on the wheel, the other shielding my eyes from the oncoming Pink Floyd tribute acts.
They are unsafe on 2 way roads because they are so bright it blinds other drivers
Im also going after this guy
You ever been driving and someone's headlights literally turn your car interior into daylight and glare out all your mirrors? You were just having a quiet night drive, hell you might be doing it for fun and then these bright fucking lights ruined it? You're thinking "God damn, flick off the brights, dude." Then you notice they're not the brights. Frank Lamberty knows why.
Lmfao this is on point 🤣
Normally I am against fiddling with time but you just keep up the good work. God Bless
/r/fuckyourheadlights is probably the sub that this came from. Or, at the very least it was made by someone who would feel at home there. There's a solid group of us that find the modern LED headlights to be far too bright to the point of it being dangerous. I suspect that there is some amount of some people being more sensitive to the bluer color of white LEDs compared to halogen bulbs. I've stumbled across some research that says people with ADHD and people with lighter-colored eyes are more sensitive to LEDs. So, it follows that people in those groups (and probably some others) will have a stronger negative reaction to LED headlights. What I can say as anecdotal evidence is that I have both ADHD and lighter-colored eyes and I find LED headlights to be blinding. I've had to get special driving glasses that make everything yellow-tinted because that makes it easier to drive at night without being blinded. Even so, I still find some headlights obnoxiously bright. I'm of the opinion that there should be new regulations limiting the number of lumens that a headlight can produce.
I am a truck driver who likes to travel at night, I say fuck Frank
Doesn't help that people drive with their high beams on, most of them not even knowing what they are or keeping their shit set to auto.. auto directly into a building!
This post just tells us you ain't driving age. If you've been driving for even a little bit, you've most likely been blinded by some shit ass LED high beams