Headlights are too bright! But US experts say they’re not bright enough

‘Don’t look at the light source,’ says Greg Bannon, a director at the American Automobile Association. Photograph: Douglas Sacha/Getty Images

A few weeks ago, I was driving along a dark road at night. Suddenly, I couldn’t see. The headlights of the cars behind and ahead of me were, by my most conservative estimate, as bright as the surface of the sun. For a few seconds, I was blinded. I managed to pull over and waited for my vision to return.

Complaints about the brightness of modern headlights have become commonplace. On X, thousands of users have tweeted about headlights being too bright. The subreddit r/fuckyourheadlights has over 35,000 members who post blurry photos of offending high beams and LED headlights. Outlets like the New York Times and NBC News have written about the risks of headlight glare. Advocacy groups have called for bans on LED headlights. And the UK government launched a review into the dangers of headlight glare earlier this year, after many driver complaints.