The Real Reason Why Headlights Seem To Be Getting Brighter

For starters, as Cars.com reports, LED lights tend to cast a wider beam of light than their halogen and HID counterparts, making it easier to blind oncoming traffic because the light more easily reaches eye level. Logically, lighting position and vehicle design can also drastically change the way headlights affect other drivers. According to the International Energy Agency, the annual SUV sales market share has increased from 16.5% in 2010 to 45.9% in 2021, meaning there are more SUVs on the road than any other single vehicle type. The increase in SUV adoption means there are more vehicles around that have lights mounted higher up, casting a higher beam and blinding the drivers of smaller cars they pass on the road as a result.

Perhaps a more interesting discussion is pressure from safety rating agencies like the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), which has been pushing vehicle manufacturers to include better headlights on their vehicles for years. The IIHS sets the bar for “good” low-beam headlights at 325 feet of illumination ahead of the vehicle, as it takes around that long for a person to spot an upcoming obstacle in the road and stop a car traveling at 60 miles per hour.

According to the IIHS, 2020 was the first time all of the vehicles it tested came with an option for headlights that achieved a “good” rating. In order to so do, headlights need to either be brighter or aimed higher to illuminate the road farther ahead, meaning they’re more likely to bother oncoming traffic. Though the IIHS factors in the momentary glare from oncoming traffic when rating headlights, there’s clearly some sort of disconnect, as the number of complaints from drivers is increasing.