Headlights are Blinding us. Here's why it's Mostly an American Problem

cereal_burpist writes:

[Submitter's note] The 'lite' version of CNN is text-only.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/15/cars/headlights-tech-adaptable-high-beams-cars/index.html

Imagine if you could drive at night with your high beams on all the time, bathing the road ahead in bright light but without ever blinding other drivers. In Europe and Asia, many cars offer adaptive driving beam [ADB] headlights that can do this.

It can actually shape the light coming from headlights rather than scattering it all over the road. If there's a car coming in the other direction, or one driving ahead in the same lane, the light stays precisely away from that vehicle. The rest of the road is still covered in bright light with just a pocket of dimmer light around the other vehicles. This way a deer, pedestrian or bicyclist by the side of the road can still be seen clearly while other drivers sharing the road can see, too.

In America, the closest we can get to that today are automatic high beams, a feature available on many new cars that automatically flicks off the high beams if another vehicle is detected ahead. But that still means driving much - or most - of the time using only low beam headlights that don't reach very far.

ADB-enabled headlights already are sold on some luxury cars in America. They just lack the software to perform the way they were designed to.

Some automakers and safety groups, including Ford, Volkswagen and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, are asking NHTSA [National Highway Traffic Safety Administration] to reconsider the regulations to make it easier and less costly to offer these headlights in the US.

Read more of this story at SoylentNews.