The Best Headlights in the World Are Illegal in America

Driving after dark used to be a haven. Late at night, there’s no rush-hour traffic, just the meditative hum of the passing miles. But these days, my eyes can’t take it anymore. Even on a lonely road in the middle of the night, I can’t seem to escape the glare of obnoxiously bright headlights. A pickup truck tailgating me blinds my rearview mirror with searing headlights. Even at a distance—and even when without the brights on—the beams of a vehicle in an oncoming lane make me instinctively squint. America’s roads are now full of tactical-grade headlights, and no one is happy about it. Just look at any of the viral screeds on the Reddit forum “r/fuckyourheadlights.”Other people’s lights are a pet peeve nearly as old as the automobile: Everyone’s beams are too bright, too aggressive, and purposefully pointed into your eyes. But the problem really is worse than ever, and that’s because of the LED headlights that have taken over car design during the past decade or so. Not only can they crank out more lumens than the halogen lamps of old, but their light is also sharper and bluer, which makes it feel like an assault on the eyeballs. Car companies have an incentive to install bright headlights that make drivers think “Oh man, you can see everything,” Jonathan Elfalan, the director of vehicle testing at Edmunds, told me. The wincing driver in the opposite lane isn’t their problem.Across the world, high-powered headlights are far less menacing. That’s partly because of America’s obsession with crossovers, SUVs, and pickup trucks. New cars are taller and bigger than ever before, which means they are blasting light everywhere but down at the road ahead. “There’s a pretty good chance that the car behind you is shining its headlights right into your mirror,” Sean Tucker, a managing editor of Kelley Blue Book, told me. Still, other countries have long had something we don’t: high-tech headlights that can brilliantly illuminate the road in front of them without simultaneously bu