Social media is filled with photos and videos of blinding headlights I can't even see I'm like literally getting blinded from the guy's headlights behind me watch these close calls apparently caused by the glare this driver barely misses that pedestrian another near collision with an oncoming car and this crash into a.
Downed tree the light does look much brighter John bolo is a scientist who studies lighting for the Mount Sinai School of medicine's light and health research center he says older headlights use halogen bulbs which have a softer orange color but newer ones are bluish white you're creating a lot of glare for those other drivers and a potentially.
Dangerous situation that's right Bola showed us the difference first hand with an older halogen headlamp and a newer LED both emitting the same amount of light I'm going to look at the warm light just to kind of get a sense okay yeah it's bright let me see what the LED light does oh this one for sure much much brighter.
It hurts my eyes and actually I'm still seeing the spots from it why is it that they appear brighter well our eyes are more sensitive to Blue Light he says the issue is magnified when a headlight is out of alignment a common problem an NBC News analysis found only 10 states require annual inspections that check to see that headlights are aligned.
Correctly pointing straight out and down bulla shifts an LED headlight out of alignment by just a few degrees to show me what can happen on the road wow so the LEDs are already quite bright but when they're tilted up you can't see anything else this would be very dangerous if I were driving he says another contributing factor large.
Trucks and SUVs which made up 75 percent of all vehicle sales last year those taller Vehicles mean headlights are higher and more likely to shine directly into the eyes of a driver in a smaller lower vehicle I couldn't see for five to ten seconds Aaron Madrid totaled his Chevy Sonic in November when he says an oncoming pickup truck blinded.
Him by the time I was able to see I had swerved into incoming traffic and then I ended up in a tree fortunately he wasn't hurt it just felt like lights out but Ashanti Collins wasn't so lucky she says in May 2021 the lights from an oncoming vehicle led to her crash was it just totally blinding yes I couldn't see anything that was the only thing I seen.
Before I woke up on the side of the road in my car she had to be airlifted to a hospital to treat a broken arm and dislocated wrist when you looked at the pictures of your car did you think it was a miracle that you survived that crash yes definitely looking at the car it was just insane experts and automakers agreed the primary solution.
To this glaring problem is something called adaptive headlight technology right now it's only available on test Vehicles here in the U.S but I'm going to show you how it works I'm here in Virginia at the Audi U.S headquarters to show you what the future of driving at night might look like Audi's head of product management Philip robek what did.
These lights do well instead of thinking of a static light like a low beam and a high beam think of it as a projector there's 1.3 million micro mirrors in each headlight that create this image and is not blinding other people and it's not blinding other people I get behind the wheel to see for myself wow I can see yep everything this.
Experience of driving at night is completely different and so much better I feel like a safer driver notice these arrows on the pavement it's helping you stay within the lanes as I pull onto the highway the lights highlight my Lane without affecting other drivers okay so this car now he got in got in front of me and notice how it's got a shadow on.
Him now yeah oh interesting but the real light show takes place on this dark windy road it almost feels like magic because of the amount of light that is being cast all over I'm not used to seeing that as a driver I switch cars so I can see what it's like to drive toward the test car with adaptive headlights his high beams.
Are on yes they're not a problem for me yep whereas this car behind him with the LEDs is quite bright yes it's remarkable to see the difference do you think this technology is life-saving absolutely and here's the thing adaptive headlights have been used in Europe and several other countries for about a decade now but automakers and safety experts say.
Red tape here in the United States means it could be years before we see this technology allowed on cars here we have an in-depth article about why it's taken so long you can find that on today.com it seems like they should be rushing that it's like a magic trick it works like a dream but until that happens what can drivers do the key here according to.
The car experts is you got to slow down when you're driving at night always look to the right don't look to the left when oncoming traffic is headed towards you and don't wear sunglasses at night some people actually do that to deal with the headline Corey Hart does it but other than that no one should do it remember that song yeah yeah we got it we got it.
Thank you how'd you pull that name I have no idea it's the weirdest memories it's like five going through the files and suddenly it was there occasionally it works remember that song Dill I do that was very impressive well well done thank you hey thanks for watching don't miss the Today show every weekday at 11 A.M.
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Or cities must relax the roads esteem in diverse countries.
I name this boomer lights. Any intelligent lights in the store, on vehicles, and a great deal of others.
Don't ignore emergency light bars that completely blind you as your driving previous a accident or someone pulled over.