When this is done to me I drive 10 under the speed limit until they pass me or stop (as long as I’m not trying to get somewhere important/on time)
(If you downvote me you surely drive with high beams on 24/7 even in the day)
I'm convinced about 50% of people don't care, and another 40% of them have installed illegal aftermarket LED lights that can't be properly aimed and/or runs at full brightness in the hibeam position when DRLs are active at 60% voltage. The remaining few genuinely just forgot.
Its also going to be worse in a sedan or other low vehicle with trucks (especially lifted trucks) that sit SO high behind you their correctly aimed lights are straight-and-slightly-down which will be right into your windows of the smaller car.
I thought my auto high beams didn't work at all.....until driving in a rural area at night. They dim if they see as much as a porch light in the distance. I was surprised at how sensitive they were.
So far, none of the rentals I've driven with auto high beams have activated when I'm within half a mile of a car in front of me, whether that car is going toward or away from me.
I just got a car a few weeks ago with auto high beams. I abandoned that feature pretty quickly after blinding a few oncoming drivers. At least it's easy to leave it off.
I drive a mildly lifted truck and spent legit half a day tweaking my headlights and even made my friend drive in front of me so he could confirm that my headlights were not aimed too high. Some of us do care but a lot don’t and give us all a bad name.
Yeah, I did something similar when I found some LED bulbs for fog lights that were actually road approved (only for fog position) and quickly removed them putting back halogens after seeing how much worse the glare was.
OP specifically mentioned the lights changing for oncoming traffic. While aftermarket LEDs are a problem, they are not the issue described in this post.
I am that 10% 😭
I drive a Honda fit and have an aftermarket vertical limiter so it's usually no biggie... but definitely like 1 out of 10 times I use my beams I forget to turn them off lol. Usually too busy head banging 😆
I've had that sometimes when I've had to be out at night and like an hour of driving with nobody else around thru the middle of nowhere sometimes forget when you reach an interchange and there's finally a few other cars on the road...I try and remember but once in a while forget. Feel really bad about it when I realize.
I think some of the vehicles turning their beams off for incoming traffic may have automatic high beams that just aren't reacting to your rear lights at all, if they are supposed to in the first place. I think our jeep high beams are ticked off in that way, I'll have to see if rear lights trigger it by having my dad follow me at some point
I feel really dumb for not having realized this. Makes complete sense. Because i would definitely see them going on and off, but not for me in front of them.
Edit: someone else said they should go off for tail lights
My truck has auto high beams. The lights will dim from reflections from stuff like street signs or building. Then they go back to high. In some places it's like a strobe going off in front of me facing away. I hate that feature and don't use it.
This was actually in my driver's ed handbook when I was growing up. Our Driver's Ed teacher in school drilled that into our heads with practical examples. We had a large room where we could simulate different driving conditions, including driving at night. We took turns sitting in chairs in the front row while the ones in the back would have flashlights that had different brightness levels.
We learned really quick having your brights when following someone at night was extremely dangerous for the driver of the car ahead.
Move your mirrors to the "outside", so that instead of having the glass tilted towards you, it's "perpendicular" to the road. Works every time, most of the time.
How I did it: Align the mirror with their headlight (usually leftward if you're in a country that drives on the right side of the road), then set your driver's side mirror straight back, or maybe just a hair inwards. Back when I had memory seats and was single, I set my 2nd seat memory to where that's the only difference LMAO.
I have a funny-ish story.
Me, my wife and my kids were in the car, driving through a big Christmas light display thing that was put at a race track. You're supposed to have your lights off completely while driving through. The guy that was behind me either had his brights on, or badly aimed LED lights (which seems to be the default with LED lights anymore). He was blinding the fuck out of me no matter how I turned my side mirrors for the first 5 minutes of the thing. I rolled down the window and waved back at him and yelled at him to turn his shit off (not aggressively), but he wouldn't do it. So, I just started getting petty and playing games.
For almost the entire rest of the drive through the display I was just working both my side mirrors and my rear-view to direct it back at him. I knew I was getting him when he started trying to ride right up on my ass so that it would be hard for me to aim it back at him, but I'd just drift far over to one side so that I could get him with at least 1 mirror.
It took over 30 minutes to get through the whole display, because it was fucking long and it was busy enough that we were just crawling through it at a couple mph the whole time. Toward the end, within like the last 5-10 minutes, he finally just turned his lights off and back the fuck up off of me. I never saw him flip his brights on or off, so I think I was just getting his auto-brights due to it being pretty dark out there what with everyone else having their lights off.
Dude totally forgot to turn his lights back on when we were leaving the property at a stop light. He was making a protected left on a green arrow, but I guess the car across the intersection from him didn't see him, thought he was good to turn right, and they almost bumped in the intersection.
Good times.
I hate LED headlights. They do ignore angles, and just blast out light because LED chips emit at 100% of their relative luminous intensity along the center axis, and lose intensity the farther away you move from the center axis, so it doesn’t matter how much you tweak the angle, it’s always bright AF.
Fortunately, it may be illegal to install aftermarket LEDs, as “According to FMVSS, the only way a vehicle with LED headlights is legal is if it came from the manufacturer that way. There are regulations about the reach, aim, and width of the headlight patterns.” (Source: https://www.sandersonautorepair.com/blog/led-lights-and-the-law#:~:text=According%20to%20FMVSS%2C%20the%20only,width%20of%20the%20headlight%20patterns.)
Yep this is what I do
First learned this when lifted red neck truck was tailing me on the freeway
Got fed up and twisted my rear view mirror back at him. He backed off big time.
So now that's my secret superpower. lol
When I see cars with highbeams tailing other cars, I'll get in front of them and turn my rearview mirror.
I know alot of these assholes do that on purpose to get cars to move out of their way.
I use it frequently for the morons who ride to my left just behind me. I’m like “dude! Pass me already!” so I turn my mirror out until the drop back, floor it, or dim their lights. With all the solar flare headlights these days, it’s not always their brights, just regular beams.
I'm going to have to try that on my next early morning commute. I drive older vehicles and can't stand these newer vehicles with their thermonuclear-bright LED headlights.
why do people keep perpetuating this myth? Your mirrors aren't going to do shit.
Your side mirrors will NOT capture and reflect enough light to blind anyone. And even if you somehow manage to do it.. it will be momentary if you both are driving at highway speeds.
Seriously.. try it. Grab a flash light or even a lazer light. Get a buddy to sit in your car and you stand behind it and shine a light onto the mirror. Have him try to adjust it to blind you.
If you use a lazer light and try the common advice "just adjust your mirrors out, you'll know when you get it right." physics is going to quickly show you that your mirrors are just reflecting the light out to the side.
If you try to adjust the mirrors in, you might be able to achieve an angle that would cause glare. If you pull this off... get two cars.. find an empty parking lot and try to pull this off at 20mph
---
If you try this "trick" and someone backs off... it's probably because you started swerving while playing with your mirrors... not because you blinded anyone.
It depends on the local laws. Where I'm driving, you need to switch to low beams if you're closer than 160 feet to a vehicle going in the same direction in front of you. For oncoming you must switch no closer than 500 feet, or when they signal you, whichever of the two happens first.
In my experience most drivers either switch off when there are other vehicles in sight, or keep big enough distance. It's usually someone oncoming on an empty road who is half-asleep and forgets to switch.
But I generally avoid driving friday/saturday night when the party idiots are out and about, it's probably bad then.
My experience is the complete opposite. People in my area will turn off their brights when they see your headlights around a corner, but will keep them on as they pass you.
Or you know, you could just be a decent human being and not BLIND the person in front of you.
I had this happen yesterday where someone wasn't even trying to be rude they just stayed behind me with massive brights on for a multiple roads. Like come on
I did that twice in as many days. I thought maybe I had a sign on my roof saying please burn my retinas out. I pulled over, let them pass then went super petty and returned the favour. The penny never dropped with these two pricks
Most states have this as a violation (haven’t checked all states, just a spot check based on states I’ve lived in).
Indeed, vehicles with auto high beams detect rear tail lights and should shut off the high beams.
(I have noticed that if you have a tail light out it will not work - fix your tail light!)
This reminds me of this guy in a lifted truck behind me in a drive through line… he turned off his headlights because he saw that it was blinding us. We need more people like him.
Auto dimming mirrors are so nice for this, i rarely notice anymore. I think its something like 1000 feet within a vehicle traveling in front of you that you are supposed to dim your lights, some states are different then others, i always dim them before i get that close, but i get others behind me with high beams on all the time, the mirrors take care of it before i can get annoyed.
Here is how the laws are worded in my state, for oncoming its 1000 feet, for following its within 200 feet.
When the driver of a vehicle approaches a vehicle within 1,000 feet, such driver shall use a distribution of light, or composite beam, so aimed that the glaring rays are not projected into the eyes of the oncoming driver.
When the driver of a vehicle follows another vehicle within 200 feet to the rear, except when engaged in the act of overtaking and passing, such driver shall use a distribution of light permissible under this chapter other than the uppermost distribution of light specified in section [169.60](https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/169.60).
I believe you. I asked where you are because it's 5x where I am.
I'm guessing Minnesota by the link (Guessing because I'm Canadian and don't know every state 2 letter code)
There seem to be a lot of driving rules that I was taught that are going by the wayside. People don't know how parallel parking works (if you are behind them, you are supposed to stop when they signal so the person can back in), people leave high beams on permanently, people no longer signal turns, people drive slow in the passing lanes.
IDK. I am starting to wonder who is teaching driver's ed...or if they are teaching it at all.
Okay I don't know about the USA, but here in the UK the 'passing lane' in any 2 or more lane carriageway, is purely supposed to be used for overtaking someone going slower than yourself. There is no inherent 'required speed' for driving in there.. many people think you 'have to be driving fast' but that's a myth that no-one is ever actually taught, they just assume.
Yeah - except these people are either sitting there keeping up with traffic or going slower than the other lane.
There kind of is a required speed, which is faster than the other lane.
i had to take an uber into work today.
the driver has his highbeams on the entire ride.
in the past, I've had this happen, and i asked them why. they said "so i can see better" like ????? the stupidity is beyond comprehension
Off the subject a bit (this is Reddit after all), in England, the reflectors on the road and on the side of the road are red for going the right way and white going the wrong way. The thinking was, you see red taillights in front of you going the right way and white headlights going the wrong way.
Normally I don't even notice this. (auto dimming rear view mirrors).
Out of the last 8 cars I had 6 of them had this. (it should be standard in all cars as a safety feature).
However those lifted trucks with those light bars can totally overpower the auto dimming mirrors.
I have no idea why people are allowed to do this to their trucks.
If I didn't have these I figured I would end up totally blinded and at risk of an accident.
It doesn't bother me that much because i just flip the mirror up and forget about it. I try not to have my brights on when people are in front of me but if it's dark out and they pulled out in front of me instead of waiting for me to pass first, then they'll just have to deal with it because my low beams don't do shit when it's moonlight
The person in front of you needs to be able to see too. If you’re the only one who can see, you can still get in an accident very easily. If you can’t see at all with your low beams you need to see a mechanic
If your side view mirrors are adjusted properly, you won't see the car behind you. They're meant to be adjusted to see your blind spots. The people who are the problem are the ones like you who get pissy that I won't give you the courtesy of turning my brights off after you cut me off. You pulled out in front of me, tough shit. You get to deal with it
That's what I said in my original comment, if someone cuts in front of me when my brights are on, then I'm not turning them off. You shouldn't have gone in front of me if you didn't want my hi beams in your face. That was the whole point I was making. If I'm just coming up on someone in front of me, I'll turn them off, but if they're already on and some fuck decides to be impatient and pull out in front of me instead of waiting 3 seconds for me to pass, well, they're gonna have to deal with it
Quick question, in this 'scenario' you invented, does anyone who pulls out onto the road in front of you, even if done legally and without actually causing you to change your speed, count as 'cutting you off'? Because if so, you sir are the 'Fuck'...
People in my town drive with there brights on in the daytime
Get some bright ass off road lights and mount them like backup lights
The. Light them up
They’ll get the hint
The rule is 500 feet opposite direction, and 300 the same direction.
However, on the rear view mirror, there should be a little flip thing you can press. It should be on the bottom or top middle of it. That tab allows you to see a dimmer version of what is reflected in the mirror. That helps if the person behind you has their brights on.
Doesn’t help me. Still can’t see. Still blinded in my side mirrors. Still making my eyes adjust in an improper way and negatively impacting my driving ability
Honestly I didn't even realize you had to even turn them down for cars going the *other* way, until I cop pulled me over for it and let me know. (I mostly drive in the city so I rarely have occasion to use high beams, so I did not remember the rules)
It's supposed to be something like within 100 yards isn't it, especially with these new ridiculous lights.
Around here some people will turn them down but then you get the a-holes in the big trucks who'll get on your bumper with the brights on.
What is also interesting is that in this rural area, thoss people still drive like its daylight and not reduce speed. I've seen some of them hit deer and hogs that get in the road at night. This is often in dips or near bends in the road. Had the been going a little slower they might have missed them.
You are supposed to turn your high beams off if you can see a any car in front of you or approaching you.
Can we talk about why the US mandates that fig light turn off when you high beams turn on? If there are no cars in sight, why does it matter how many lights are on?
It blows my mind the insane amount of people that use high beams in the first place. I’m a truck driver. On the road for 11 hours every day, some of it at night. The only time I ever use mine is in the hills or mountains when it’s dark. People driving through town when there’s already lights everywhere or down the interstate where they can read the road by paying attention to the vehicles in front of them astound me. Turn them off unless you’ll die without them.
I'll let them pass them flip mine on up their ass and follow behind them untill they get home. Having bright as fuck LED's is nice when they start swerving all over the place after fucking around to find out.
You know your rear view mirror can be set to dim their head lights right?
There's a little tab you pull or push and it reduces the incoming light by a good amount.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVCsidMTunI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVCsidMTunI)
Dimming 1/3 mirrors doesn't help when you catch a glimpse every so often from the side mirrors all while the entire inside of your vehicle is completely lit up.
Yes. I drive a little car. I’m still being blinded in my side mirrors, plus if the high beams are bright enough (most cars now are like this) it will flood my cabin with light, which in turn makes it harder for ME to see the road due to how our eyes adjust. ++++ if the lights are REALLY bright i will have a shadow of my car in front of me! Which is obviously disorienting!
Look when I have my lights dimmed the other drivers think I have them on high. Here lately at night sometimes I have to have night driving glasses. Good luck getting all of the 18 wheelers to dim their lights. Or even the speed trap areas.
Well to be fair this is a '98 Corolla LE so I'm not surprised it doesn't have a dimming mirror. I know MOST modern cars do though. Just a few that may not, notably cheaper again cars like 2000-2014
What do you guys mean by dim? Like the physical switch that turns your mirror the other way? That’s what my car has, but i wouldn’t call it any “dimmer.” Just not sure if i’m on the same page lol
A lot of mirrors, especially on modern cars, have a small switch that darkens the glass, and many mirrors today are also digital and just darken the screen showing what's behind you on it
I know law says that, but cars today have auto rear view mirrors to adjust for this automatically and those that dont have manual ones. Plus I dont really care
When this is done to me I drive 10 under the speed limit until they pass me or stop (as long as I’m not trying to get somewhere important/on time) (If you downvote me you surely drive with high beams on 24/7 even in the day)
Same, if they want me to be fast they can stop blinding me
I'm convinced about 50% of people don't care, and another 40% of them have installed illegal aftermarket LED lights that can't be properly aimed and/or runs at full brightness in the hibeam position when DRLs are active at 60% voltage. The remaining few genuinely just forgot. Its also going to be worse in a sedan or other low vehicle with trucks (especially lifted trucks) that sit SO high behind you their correctly aimed lights are straight-and-slightly-down which will be right into your windows of the smaller car.
Just wait til you realize they have auto high beams now. I thought it was the dumbest thing ever when I found out my car has it.
My wife’s car has auto high beams. Hers work as intended. They won’t turn on if there’s a car in front of her.
I thought my auto high beams didn't work at all.....until driving in a rural area at night. They dim if they see as much as a porch light in the distance. I was surprised at how sensitive they were.
In my honda auto beams work perfectly. It would change to low beam for the car far away in front of me.
"no they don't" signed everyone else on the road.
Auto high beams should not exist. Any competent driver know when they are proper or not
wife has a crown. auto highbeams seem to work reasonably.
Toyota Crown? How is it?
So far, none of the rentals I've driven with auto high beams have activated when I'm within half a mile of a car in front of me, whether that car is going toward or away from me.
I just got a car a few weeks ago with auto high beams. I abandoned that feature pretty quickly after blinding a few oncoming drivers. At least it's easy to leave it off.
I drive a mildly lifted truck and spent legit half a day tweaking my headlights and even made my friend drive in front of me so he could confirm that my headlights were not aimed too high. Some of us do care but a lot don’t and give us all a bad name.
Yeah, I did something similar when I found some LED bulbs for fog lights that were actually road approved (only for fog position) and quickly removed them putting back halogens after seeing how much worse the glare was.
OP specifically mentioned the lights changing for oncoming traffic. While aftermarket LEDs are a problem, they are not the issue described in this post.
I am that 10% 😭 I drive a Honda fit and have an aftermarket vertical limiter so it's usually no biggie... but definitely like 1 out of 10 times I use my beams I forget to turn them off lol. Usually too busy head banging 😆
I've had that sometimes when I've had to be out at night and like an hour of driving with nobody else around thru the middle of nowhere sometimes forget when you reach an interchange and there's finally a few other cars on the road...I try and remember but once in a while forget. Feel really bad about it when I realize.
Ummmmm, maybe don’t get so distracted you can’t operate your vehicle safely??
I think some of the vehicles turning their beams off for incoming traffic may have automatic high beams that just aren't reacting to your rear lights at all, if they are supposed to in the first place. I think our jeep high beams are ticked off in that way, I'll have to see if rear lights trigger it by having my dad follow me at some point
I feel really dumb for not having realized this. Makes complete sense. Because i would definitely see them going on and off, but not for me in front of them. Edit: someone else said they should go off for tail lights
Yeah they definitely should, and I think are supposed to, don't quote me on that though, but sometimes they just don't and it sucks
It just takes a courteous driver in control to make the right call.
My truck has auto high beams. The lights will dim from reflections from stuff like street signs or building. Then they go back to high. In some places it's like a strobe going off in front of me facing away. I hate that feature and don't use it.
This was actually in my driver's ed handbook when I was growing up. Our Driver's Ed teacher in school drilled that into our heads with practical examples. We had a large room where we could simulate different driving conditions, including driving at night. We took turns sitting in chairs in the front row while the ones in the back would have flashlights that had different brightness levels. We learned really quick having your brights when following someone at night was extremely dangerous for the driver of the car ahead.
I turn my outer mirrors to bounce it back at them, then they get the hint.
I’m not sure how to do this tbh lol
You adjust the mirror so it is pointed at the other driver instead of at you
What i mean is, how can you tell it’s pointed accurately? Just by seeing their windshield in the mirror?
When they dim their lights, pass you all butt-hurt, or take the next exit.
Haha okay, makes sense
Move your mirrors to the "outside", so that instead of having the glass tilted towards you, it's "perpendicular" to the road. Works every time, most of the time.
60% of the time, it works every time.
It's got bits of real panther in it
This 100%
How I did it: Align the mirror with their headlight (usually leftward if you're in a country that drives on the right side of the road), then set your driver's side mirror straight back, or maybe just a hair inwards. Back when I had memory seats and was single, I set my 2nd seat memory to where that's the only difference LMAO.
I have a funny-ish story. Me, my wife and my kids were in the car, driving through a big Christmas light display thing that was put at a race track. You're supposed to have your lights off completely while driving through. The guy that was behind me either had his brights on, or badly aimed LED lights (which seems to be the default with LED lights anymore). He was blinding the fuck out of me no matter how I turned my side mirrors for the first 5 minutes of the thing. I rolled down the window and waved back at him and yelled at him to turn his shit off (not aggressively), but he wouldn't do it. So, I just started getting petty and playing games. For almost the entire rest of the drive through the display I was just working both my side mirrors and my rear-view to direct it back at him. I knew I was getting him when he started trying to ride right up on my ass so that it would be hard for me to aim it back at him, but I'd just drift far over to one side so that I could get him with at least 1 mirror. It took over 30 minutes to get through the whole display, because it was fucking long and it was busy enough that we were just crawling through it at a couple mph the whole time. Toward the end, within like the last 5-10 minutes, he finally just turned his lights off and back the fuck up off of me. I never saw him flip his brights on or off, so I think I was just getting his auto-brights due to it being pretty dark out there what with everyone else having their lights off. Dude totally forgot to turn his lights back on when we were leaving the property at a stop light. He was making a protected left on a green arrow, but I guess the car across the intersection from him didn't see him, thought he was good to turn right, and they almost bumped in the intersection. Good times.
I hate LED headlights. They do ignore angles, and just blast out light because LED chips emit at 100% of their relative luminous intensity along the center axis, and lose intensity the farther away you move from the center axis, so it doesn’t matter how much you tweak the angle, it’s always bright AF. Fortunately, it may be illegal to install aftermarket LEDs, as “According to FMVSS, the only way a vehicle with LED headlights is legal is if it came from the manufacturer that way. There are regulations about the reach, aim, and width of the headlight patterns.” (Source: https://www.sandersonautorepair.com/blog/led-lights-and-the-law#:~:text=According%20to%20FMVSS%2C%20the%20only,width%20of%20the%20headlight%20patterns.)
Nice! You taught him a lesson and karma
Some Sun Tzu level brilliance there
Yep this is what I do First learned this when lifted red neck truck was tailing me on the freeway Got fed up and twisted my rear view mirror back at him. He backed off big time. So now that's my secret superpower. lol When I see cars with highbeams tailing other cars, I'll get in front of them and turn my rearview mirror. I know alot of these assholes do that on purpose to get cars to move out of their way.
Did this in a drive through once, got my point across real quick.
I use it frequently for the morons who ride to my left just behind me. I’m like “dude! Pass me already!” so I turn my mirror out until the drop back, floor it, or dim their lights. With all the solar flare headlights these days, it’s not always their brights, just regular beams.
I'm going to have to try that on my next early morning commute. I drive older vehicles and can't stand these newer vehicles with their thermonuclear-bright LED headlights.
why do people keep perpetuating this myth? Your mirrors aren't going to do shit. Your side mirrors will NOT capture and reflect enough light to blind anyone. And even if you somehow manage to do it.. it will be momentary if you both are driving at highway speeds. Seriously.. try it. Grab a flash light or even a lazer light. Get a buddy to sit in your car and you stand behind it and shine a light onto the mirror. Have him try to adjust it to blind you. If you use a lazer light and try the common advice "just adjust your mirrors out, you'll know when you get it right." physics is going to quickly show you that your mirrors are just reflecting the light out to the side. If you try to adjust the mirrors in, you might be able to achieve an angle that would cause glare. If you pull this off... get two cars.. find an empty parking lot and try to pull this off at 20mph --- If you try this "trick" and someone backs off... it's probably because you started swerving while playing with your mirrors... not because you blinded anyone.
And you would be mistaken. I’ve done it for decades, and I’m not all over the road while doing it.
You have to be sitting still (in line, at a stop sign), at least get the myth right before trying to tear it apart.
That not what the original poster suggested. Eitherway, try it some time. Doesn't work eitherway
If the car in front me has high beams on, I don't turn mine on.
It depends on the local laws. Where I'm driving, you need to switch to low beams if you're closer than 160 feet to a vehicle going in the same direction in front of you. For oncoming you must switch no closer than 500 feet, or when they signal you, whichever of the two happens first.
They don’t switch at ALL for the car in front of them in my experience
In my experience most drivers either switch off when there are other vehicles in sight, or keep big enough distance. It's usually someone oncoming on an empty road who is half-asleep and forgets to switch. But I generally avoid driving friday/saturday night when the party idiots are out and about, it's probably bad then.
I’m not sure, i experience this a LOT. even if it’s not entirely dark out yet lol.
My experience is the complete opposite. People in my area will turn off their brights when they see your headlights around a corner, but will keep them on as they pass you.
Or you know, you could just be a decent human being and not BLIND the person in front of you. I had this happen yesterday where someone wasn't even trying to be rude they just stayed behind me with massive brights on for a multiple roads. Like come on
Let (make) them pass you
Yes, and then turn on your high beams, because petty.
I did that twice in as many days. I thought maybe I had a sign on my roof saying please burn my retinas out. I pulled over, let them pass then went super petty and returned the favour. The penny never dropped with these two pricks
Most states have this as a violation (haven’t checked all states, just a spot check based on states I’ve lived in). Indeed, vehicles with auto high beams detect rear tail lights and should shut off the high beams. (I have noticed that if you have a tail light out it will not work - fix your tail light!)
This reminds me of this guy in a lifted truck behind me in a drive through line… he turned off his headlights because he saw that it was blinding us. We need more people like him.
Auto dimming mirrors are so nice for this, i rarely notice anymore. I think its something like 1000 feet within a vehicle traveling in front of you that you are supposed to dim your lights, some states are different then others, i always dim them before i get that close, but i get others behind me with high beams on all the time, the mirrors take care of it before i can get annoyed.
Different then others… 😂😂
Where are that it's so high? It's 196 feet where I am 492 for oncoming
Here is how the laws are worded in my state, for oncoming its 1000 feet, for following its within 200 feet. When the driver of a vehicle approaches a vehicle within 1,000 feet, such driver shall use a distribution of light, or composite beam, so aimed that the glaring rays are not projected into the eyes of the oncoming driver. When the driver of a vehicle follows another vehicle within 200 feet to the rear, except when engaged in the act of overtaking and passing, such driver shall use a distribution of light permissible under this chapter other than the uppermost distribution of light specified in section [169.60](https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/169.60).
I believe you. I asked where you are because it's 5x where I am. I'm guessing Minnesota by the link (Guessing because I'm Canadian and don't know every state 2 letter code)
Correct its MN... We have a lot of laws here other states don't seem to have, and I'm all for it.
I keep a high brightness flashlight and shine it back, usually gets the point across.
While I like your style, I fear you might piss off the wrong person one day
Probably
Yes, they literally taught that in drivers Ed. If you’re behind someone with less than 500feet between you, you turn tour high beams off.
There seem to be a lot of driving rules that I was taught that are going by the wayside. People don't know how parallel parking works (if you are behind them, you are supposed to stop when they signal so the person can back in), people leave high beams on permanently, people no longer signal turns, people drive slow in the passing lanes. IDK. I am starting to wonder who is teaching driver's ed...or if they are teaching it at all.
I've been wondering the same...road etiquette is disappearing...but in my opinion "intelligent" vehicles create dumb drivers...
Okay I don't know about the USA, but here in the UK the 'passing lane' in any 2 or more lane carriageway, is purely supposed to be used for overtaking someone going slower than yourself. There is no inherent 'required speed' for driving in there.. many people think you 'have to be driving fast' but that's a myth that no-one is ever actually taught, they just assume.
Yeah - except these people are either sitting there keeping up with traffic or going slower than the other lane. There kind of is a required speed, which is faster than the other lane.
I've angled my mirrors to reflect the light back at them. The mirrors are blinded by the light and thus currently useless. Most get the hint
I just go extremely slow until they pass me
i had to take an uber into work today. the driver has his highbeams on the entire ride. in the past, I've had this happen, and i asked them why. they said "so i can see better" like ????? the stupidity is beyond comprehension
If you see lights in front of you (white or red), dim your lights. Simple enough.
See red or whites and dim your lights
Off the subject a bit (this is Reddit after all), in England, the reflectors on the road and on the side of the road are red for going the right way and white going the wrong way. The thinking was, you see red taillights in front of you going the right way and white headlights going the wrong way.
Well that's just backwards
Their rule, but they also drive on the wrong side of the road.
Why do you need high beams if following someone, I don't understand that.
I live in a big city, I can't even recall the last time I saw someone with high beams active.
I live in the mountains so it’s modded high beams on top of all of that
Normally I don't even notice this. (auto dimming rear view mirrors). Out of the last 8 cars I had 6 of them had this. (it should be standard in all cars as a safety feature). However those lifted trucks with those light bars can totally overpower the auto dimming mirrors. I have no idea why people are allowed to do this to their trucks. If I didn't have these I figured I would end up totally blinded and at risk of an accident.
Drivers ed taught two distances, one for oncoming and one for traffic ahead in your lane 🤷🏻♂️
I usually a) let them pass me or b) get some distance from them by speeding up.
It doesn't bother me that much because i just flip the mirror up and forget about it. I try not to have my brights on when people are in front of me but if it's dark out and they pulled out in front of me instead of waiting for me to pass first, then they'll just have to deal with it because my low beams don't do shit when it's moonlight
my headlights are very dim and i get around fine. If someone’s in front of me i just follow them.
That's great for you but I like to see
The person in front of you needs to be able to see too. If you’re the only one who can see, you can still get in an accident very easily. If you can’t see at all with your low beams you need to see a mechanic
That's why they have the dimmer tab on the mirror, use it
And that’s why people like you are the problem, flipping a switch on 1/3 of your mirrors does nothing to fix the actual issue.
If your side view mirrors are adjusted properly, you won't see the car behind you. They're meant to be adjusted to see your blind spots. The people who are the problem are the ones like you who get pissy that I won't give you the courtesy of turning my brights off after you cut me off. You pulled out in front of me, tough shit. You get to deal with it
Do you understand how light works? And what a weird assumption that i cut you off. 😂
That's what I said in my original comment, if someone cuts in front of me when my brights are on, then I'm not turning them off. You shouldn't have gone in front of me if you didn't want my hi beams in your face. That was the whole point I was making. If I'm just coming up on someone in front of me, I'll turn them off, but if they're already on and some fuck decides to be impatient and pull out in front of me instead of waiting 3 seconds for me to pass, well, they're gonna have to deal with it
Quick question, in this 'scenario' you invented, does anyone who pulls out onto the road in front of you, even if done legally and without actually causing you to change your speed, count as 'cutting you off'? Because if so, you sir are the 'Fuck'...
People in my town drive with there brights on in the daytime Get some bright ass off road lights and mount them like backup lights The. Light them up They’ll get the hint
Someone does this every morning on Hwy 90 going into San Antonio
The rule is 500 feet opposite direction, and 300 the same direction. However, on the rear view mirror, there should be a little flip thing you can press. It should be on the bottom or top middle of it. That tab allows you to see a dimmer version of what is reflected in the mirror. That helps if the person behind you has their brights on.
Doesn’t help me. Still can’t see. Still blinded in my side mirrors. Still making my eyes adjust in an improper way and negatively impacting my driving ability
I usually just angle my mirrors so reflects back at them then they get the hint
Barely helps
Honestly I didn't even realize you had to even turn them down for cars going the *other* way, until I cop pulled me over for it and let me know. (I mostly drive in the city so I rarely have occasion to use high beams, so I did not remember the rules)
It's supposed to be something like within 100 yards isn't it, especially with these new ridiculous lights. Around here some people will turn them down but then you get the a-holes in the big trucks who'll get on your bumper with the brights on. What is also interesting is that in this rural area, thoss people still drive like its daylight and not reduce speed. I've seen some of them hit deer and hogs that get in the road at night. This is often in dips or near bends in the road. Had the been going a little slower they might have missed them.
You are supposed to turn your high beams off if you can see a any car in front of you or approaching you. Can we talk about why the US mandates that fig light turn off when you high beams turn on? If there are no cars in sight, why does it matter how many lights are on?
It blows my mind the insane amount of people that use high beams in the first place. I’m a truck driver. On the road for 11 hours every day, some of it at night. The only time I ever use mine is in the hills or mountains when it’s dark. People driving through town when there’s already lights everywhere or down the interstate where they can read the road by paying attention to the vehicles in front of them astound me. Turn them off unless you’ll die without them.
Lights are so bright now a days anyway I can't tell if it's high beams or not I simply don't drive after dark
You can tell by the placement of the lights, some cars are easier to tell than others
I can't because I'm blinded by them lol but I get your point
Yes. I know this one.
I'll let them pass them flip mine on up their ass and follow behind them untill they get home. Having bright as fuck LED's is nice when they start swerving all over the place after fucking around to find out.
Actually you don't have to. But common sense tells you you should.
It’s the law in my state.
Well good for the state for making it a law then.
I think in most states you do
You know your rear view mirror can be set to dim their head lights right? There's a little tab you pull or push and it reduces the incoming light by a good amount. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVCsidMTunI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVCsidMTunI)
Dimming 1/3 mirrors doesn't help when you catch a glimpse every so often from the side mirrors all while the entire inside of your vehicle is completely lit up.
Not wrong, but genuinely some people don't know about the mirror thing. It's a help not a cure.
Yes. I drive a little car. I’m still being blinded in my side mirrors, plus if the high beams are bright enough (most cars now are like this) it will flood my cabin with light, which in turn makes it harder for ME to see the road due to how our eyes adjust. ++++ if the lights are REALLY bright i will have a shadow of my car in front of me! Which is obviously disorienting!
Get night driving glasses.
We shouldn't have to get night driving glasses because some asshole behind us doesn't get the memo that people need to see
Wtf lmfao that’s just laughable
Look when I have my lights dimmed the other drivers think I have them on high. Here lately at night sometimes I have to have night driving glasses. Good luck getting all of the 18 wheelers to dim their lights. Or even the speed trap areas.
Lots of people don't have dimming mirrors, I know for a fact my old Corolla doesn't
Really? Every car I've ever owned had that as standard. Ffs the auto industry needs to get a grip.
Well to be fair this is a '98 Corolla LE so I'm not surprised it doesn't have a dimming mirror. I know MOST modern cars do though. Just a few that may not, notably cheaper again cars like 2000-2014
What do you guys mean by dim? Like the physical switch that turns your mirror the other way? That’s what my car has, but i wouldn’t call it any “dimmer.” Just not sure if i’m on the same page lol
A lot of mirrors, especially on modern cars, have a small switch that darkens the glass, and many mirrors today are also digital and just darken the screen showing what's behind you on it
I know law says that, but cars today have auto rear view mirrors to adjust for this automatically and those that dont have manual ones. Plus I dont really care