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in Alaska and Hawaii, exclusions,

1:00

and more terms apply. Details

1:02

of lows.com/terms, subject to change. Nobody

1:05

likes LED headlights. Their intensity, the

1:07

maximum intensity that they produce, actually

1:09

has increased. When they sell cars,

1:11

they really want a good safety

1:14

rating, which is more easy to

1:16

attain with a super bright light. Hey

1:21

there, I'm John Glenn Hill and

1:23

this is explaining to me where

1:25

we answered the questions that matter

1:28

to you most What the heck

1:30

is going on? I wish I

1:32

understood Somebody please just explain it to

1:34

me and these days I only really

1:37

get behind the wheel when I'm out

1:39

of town So when I noticed a

1:41

change in cars on the road, I

1:43

thought it was just me But then

1:46

we got a call from Reed and

1:48

he also worried it was just him.

1:50

Am I going crazy or does

1:52

every new car on the road

1:54

have the world's brightest headlights? I

1:56

feel like whenever I'm driving at

1:58

night now I'm constantly... having to

2:00

shield or avert my eyes from people

2:03

with giant flashlight strapped to the front

2:05

of their car. So I guess I'm

2:07

wondering why is this suddenly happening? And

2:10

are there any limits? Can people just

2:12

put whatever they want on the front

2:14

of their car and blind everyone else?

2:17

There's literally a subreddit dedicated to this.

2:19

And there are even scientists who dedicate

2:21

their time to setting it, like John

2:23

Below. a research scientist at the Light

2:26

and Health Research Center at the icon

2:28

School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. I'm

2:30

not sure anybody has a dream of

2:33

becoming a lighting scientist when they're a

2:35

kid. It actually started out as a

2:37

summer job at the university where I

2:40

went to school and I actually thought

2:42

it was the lightning research center which

2:44

seemed a lot more exciting. I was

2:47

little disappointed when I learned it was

2:49

lighting, but as I learned more about

2:51

it, it really became something that was

2:54

interesting to me about... light that's all

2:56

around us and it affects not only

2:58

the way we see but the way

3:01

we sleep and a lot about our

3:03

health and well-being and it hasn't gotten

3:05

boring after 30 years. I'd love to

3:07

get your thoughts on the question we

3:10

got from our listener. Are headlights brighter

3:12

than they used to be? Well there's

3:14

two ways to answer that question but

3:17

fortunately for your listener's sanity the answer

3:19

is yes to both of those. The

3:24

first way has to do with

3:26

the color of LED headlights. You've

3:28

probably noticed that a lot of

3:30

them look a lot more of

3:33

a bluish white compared to the

3:35

yellowish white of halogen headlights. Can

3:37

we please go back to the

3:39

soft white headlights that they used

3:41

to put in cars? Because I

3:43

feel like now all these new

3:45

LED headlights are like these bright

3:47

blue blaring cold colored headlights. If

3:50

you look at them too long,

3:52

you're gonna melt. And the way

3:54

that we define light, the definition

3:56

of light, when we measure it,

3:58

is actually over 100 years old.

4:00

and it actually discounts a lot

4:02

of the blue wavelengths, the blue

4:04

part of the color spectrum. So

4:07

in that sense, even though the

4:09

light meter may say two headlights

4:11

are equal, our eyes will see

4:13

the LED bluish one as brighter.

4:15

The second way to answer that

4:17

question is to actually use the

4:19

light meter and intensity of headlights

4:21

have actually increased over the last

4:24

10 or 20 years. A halogen

4:26

ball puts out around a thousand

4:28

lumens. LEDs put out about 4,000

4:30

lumens, so four times more, but

4:32

there are some after-market lights that

4:34

advertise an extreme 12,000 lumens. And

4:36

does that include LED lights and

4:39

non-LED lights that have gotten brighter

4:41

or is it just these LED

4:43

lights that are brighter? It's actually

4:45

both kinds of headlights, both the

4:47

halogen headlights and the LED headlights

4:49

have increased in their luminous intensity.

4:51

Headlights are getting brighter. they're getting

4:53

smaller and they're getting bluer and

4:56

all three of those things increase

4:58

discomfort glare. We think about the

5:00

reason we have headlights, they're not

5:02

to create glare to other drivers,

5:04

they're to help us see things

5:06

along the road so that we

5:08

can avoid colliding with those. As

5:10

we've paid more attention to headlights

5:13

and their ability to provide visibility,

5:15

it's become clear that... they don't

5:17

always do the best job. And

5:19

so headlight intensities have actually been

5:21

increasing in intensity in part because

5:23

of things like the Insurance Institute

5:25

for Highway Safety's safety ratings that

5:27

when they first started coming out

5:30

about 10 years ago, we're giving

5:32

headlights. Pretty poor grades in terms

5:34

of their ability to help us

5:36

see things at night. When the

5:38

Insurance Institute for Highway Safety first

5:40

started evaluating headlights in 2016, only

5:42

two out of the 95 vehicles

5:44

tested got the highest rating of

5:47

good. About half of the models

5:49

we tested don't have adequate headlights

5:51

that provide enough visibility for the

5:53

driver. Okay, so LED and non-LED

5:55

lights are brighter. low beam and

5:57

high beam but for the purpose

5:59

of this conversation let's focus on

6:01

LED lights that's the industry standard

6:04

right? That's right more than 90%

6:06

of all new cars have LED

6:08

headlights only so halogen headlights are

6:10

going to be going away pretty

6:12

quickly and LEDs are much more

6:14

efficient than halogen headlights, so they

6:16

use less energy and that corresponds

6:18

to fewer vehicle emissions and things

6:21

like that. That's a good thing.

6:23

But because they're more efficient, LED

6:25

headlights can actually end up having

6:27

more light. And some of that

6:29

light actually ends up in other

6:31

drivers' eyes or in their rear

6:33

view mirrors. Do you see these

6:35

headlights? Ten times brighter than the

6:38

sun. Are there other factors coming

6:40

into play when we talk about

6:42

the brightness of headlights and drivers?

6:44

We're driving more pickup trucks and

6:46

SUVs than we were in earlier

6:48

years, and so headlights have gotten

6:50

higher off the ground than they

6:53

used to be. If

6:55

you are a victim of these

6:57

bright headlights, I apologize. I don't

6:59

mean, I can't do nothing if

7:01

I buy the truck like that.

7:03

And all the requirements for headlights

7:05

are relative to the headlight itself.

7:07

So that means headlights are pushing

7:10

more light into the eyes of

7:12

drivers, especially drivers who are driving

7:14

passenger cars and sedans. Their eyes

7:16

are lower to the ground, and

7:18

now they're looking at headlights that

7:20

are higher mounted off the ground.

7:22

What's happening because it feels like

7:24

ring lights for your headlights. Another

7:26

factor is the fact that low

7:28

beam headlights are very sensitive to

7:31

the way that they're aimed. And

7:33

when you shine your lights on

7:35

a garage door, for example, you

7:37

see a broad horizontal band of

7:39

light with a pretty dark area

7:41

above and a bright area below.

7:43

That bright area is supposed to

7:45

be aimed slightly downward so that

7:47

you're lighting up the road, which

7:50

is what we want to see.

7:52

If those headlights are even missing

7:54

just a little bit upward, that

7:56

bright band of light is now

7:58

going to be shining into other

8:00

driver's eyes. And we found that

8:02

headlight aim, especially when they're pointed

8:04

slightly upward, can really increase the

8:06

amount of glare by a lot. John,

8:09

thank you so much for confirming that

8:11

our listener read is not losing

8:13

it. Yes, lights are indeed brighter

8:15

than ever, but they're also appearing

8:17

brighter than ever. We're going to

8:20

say goodbye to John for now,

8:22

but when we're back, we'll find

8:24

out who's responsible for these bright

8:26

lights. It's

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been reported that one in

8:33

four people experienced sensory sensitivities,

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making everyday experiences like a

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trip to the dentist, especially

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difficult. In fact, 26% of

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sensory sensitive individuals avoid dental

8:45

visits entirely. In Sensory Overload,

8:47

a new documentary produced as

8:49

part of Sensodyne's sensory inclusion

8:52

initiative, we follow individuals navigating

8:54

a world not built for

8:56

them. where bright lights, loud

8:58

sounds, and unexpected touches can

9:01

turn routine moments into overwhelming

9:03

challenges. Burnett Grant, for example,

9:05

has spent their life masking

9:08

discomfort in workplaces that don't

9:10

accommodate neuro divergence. I've only had

9:12

two full-time jobs where I felt safe,

9:14

they share. This is why they're advocating

9:17

for change. Through deeply personal

9:19

stories like Burnett's, sensory

9:21

overload highlights the urgent

9:23

need for spaces, dental

9:26

offices and beyond, that

9:28

embrace sensory inclusion. Because

9:30

true inclusion requires action

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with environments where everyone

9:34

feels safe. Watch Sensory

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FDIC. We're

11:06

back. It's explaining to me. Looking

11:08

at why headlights are so bright

11:10

these days, it's a question that's

11:13

literally tormented our next guess. Mark

11:15

Baker. He says that his intense

11:17

experience with headlights led him to

11:20

a diagnosis of mild autism and

11:22

changed his life. He now runs

11:24

an organization to protect people from

11:27

the impacts of LEDs. The Soft

11:29

Lights Foundation. How did you get

11:31

involved in this? Like what inspired

11:33

you? take this up. It's not

11:36

really like an inspiration, it was

11:38

more like a disaster. So I

11:40

used to be a middle school

11:43

math teacher and when these LED

11:45

headlights started coming out, I remember

11:47

vividly this new thing appeared, the

11:50

Cadillac, and they had daytime running

11:52

likes. I was assaulted by this

11:54

LED light that I'd never seen

11:56

anything like it before. and it

11:59

was a white light, but some

12:01

kind of a weird intensity that

12:03

felt like... It's indescribable, really. It

12:06

sort of looks like a hot

12:08

oven, but with a blue color

12:10

to me, and it was really

12:13

emotionally disturbing. So those headlights and

12:15

other LED lights knocked me out

12:17

of being a teacher. I just,

12:20

I couldn't get to work anymore

12:22

without suffering these impacts, these neurological,

12:24

psychological impacts. So many people don't

12:26

see it, but other people can

12:29

actually consciously see it. So they're

12:31

driving around seeing flicker, flicker, flicker,

12:33

and that's, of course, really disturbing.

12:39

I understand you've had quite

12:41

a few people sign a

12:43

petition about this. Could you

12:45

talk about that a little

12:47

bit? I would love to.

12:49

We've notified the government, they

12:51

have copies of this petition,

12:53

but just recently we exceeded

12:55

70,000 signatures. Wow. So we

12:57

have thousands of comments. and

12:59

they talk about their stigmatism

13:01

and how the light impacts

13:03

their stigmatism, they talk about

13:05

how they can't see, they

13:07

talk about how they stopped

13:09

driving at night, they're begging

13:11

us to do something about

13:13

the problem, begging anybody to

13:15

do something. Yeah, does it

13:17

seem the government is paying

13:19

attention? The government is not

13:21

paying attention. We are pushing,

13:23

we've been doing this for

13:25

a long time already, so

13:27

we've developed expertise on how

13:30

this all worked. The Soft

13:32

Lights Foundation has submitted multiple

13:34

regulatory petitions, formal petitions to

13:36

the government. Some have been

13:38

just flat out denied. I

13:40

have two petitions in there

13:42

right now. One, to set

13:44

the limit on maximum intensity,

13:46

which right now there's no

13:48

overall limit on maximum intensity.

13:50

Can be as intense as

13:52

they want. In fact, I

13:54

do have a lawsuit. I

13:56

filed it by myself. It's

13:58

against the National Highway Traffic

14:00

Safety Administration. and the Food

14:02

and Drug Administration together, because

14:04

there is a statute that

14:06

requires the FDA and the

14:08

NTSA to establish a liaison

14:10

and test and evaluate products

14:12

that emit electromagnetic radiation. That

14:14

includes LED headlights. They don't

14:16

want to. They're fighting my

14:18

lawsuit, and so I'm trying

14:20

to compel them to do

14:23

their job. Marx also

14:25

lobbied Congress to get a hearing

14:27

on the impact of LED headlights,

14:29

and he's tried working with state

14:31

legislatures to pass light intensity laws,

14:33

but he has as of yet

14:36

to score a W for all

14:38

his efforts. So, how did we

14:40

get here? We reached out to

14:42

Nate Rogers, who explored all this

14:44

in his extensive article for the

14:46

Ringer, called A Sleep at the

14:48

Wheel in the Headlight Brightness Wars.

14:54

So LEDs are new technology that

14:56

took over pretty much everything in

14:58

the lighting world in the last

15:01

15 years It's just sort of

15:03

arguably the biggest change in lighting

15:05

technology since like you know they

15:08

first fired up a incandescent light

15:10

bulb It's taking the traditional form

15:12

of a light bulb, which is

15:14

sort of like one source of

15:17

light that emits in every direction

15:19

and replacing it with something that's

15:21

more akin to like a computer

15:24

chip. So you can really like

15:26

program the different chips which almost

15:28

function like pixels or something and

15:31

it's more energy efficient and it

15:33

lasts longer. It was a total

15:35

sea change in the lighting world

15:37

when LEDs came out and over

15:40

time they've started to replace pretty

15:42

much everything and that includes car

15:44

headlights. Why did car manufacturers make

15:47

that switch in the first place?

15:49

There's a lot of answers for

15:51

that and the shortest one is

15:54

just that... LEDs are kind of

15:56

the future. But one really concrete

15:58

reason that car companies like LEDs

16:01

is that they are. very much

16:03

in search of getting a good

16:05

safety rating from this nonprofit called

16:07

the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety,

16:10

the I.I.H.S. They're a nonprofit that

16:12

is funded by the insurance companies.

16:14

You know, they all kind of

16:17

pool in together. That's sort of

16:19

like when you hear about like...

16:21

crash test dummies. Even with airbags,

16:24

Vince, you still got to remember

16:26

to buckle your safety belt? Now,

16:28

you tell me. A lot of

16:31

that is like the IHS. And

16:33

they, the Insurance Institute of Highway

16:35

Safety, have deemed brighter headlights to

16:37

be advantageous to getting a good

16:40

safety rating. So if you're trying

16:42

to get that safety rating. You

16:44

want to pump more light down

16:47

the road, and the way to

16:49

pump more light down the road

16:51

is through more powerful LEDs. So

16:54

that's an important reason why car

16:56

companies favor them. But who ensures

16:58

that LED lights are actually safe?

17:01

NHTSA, that's the National Highway Traffic

17:03

Safety Association. They are the, you

17:05

know, the federal... highway safety czars.

17:07

They are the ultimate authority. Any

17:10

car that is driving on the

17:12

road has to meet and it's

17:14

the standards. It's hard to say

17:17

exactly what they're doing on a

17:19

day-to-day basis. They're kind of mysterious.

17:21

They did not want to talk

17:24

to me for the story that

17:26

I did. They actually told me

17:28

at one point to stop emailing

17:30

their employees. I think that it's

17:33

a government agency, it's not some

17:35

vast conspiracy, they probably are just

17:37

busy doing other stuff, and clearly

17:40

in the last 15 years since

17:42

LED headlights have started to roll

17:44

out, they have not been a

17:47

priority for NHTSA, they haven't changed

17:49

the rulebook to accommodate LED headlights,

17:51

which people are seeing. to agree

17:54

now was an oversight because of

17:56

how different the technology is. It

17:58

seems like, you know, they're paying

18:00

attention to the regulations, they're doing

18:03

something, but they're not doing any

18:05

more than they really have to,

18:07

or, you know, as of now,

18:10

need to do. Does this mean

18:12

that bright headlights aren't a safety

18:14

issue, the fact that they're not

18:17

being regulated more? This is the

18:19

million-dollar question, because, you know, common

18:21

sense will tell you that... headlights

18:24

that are really bright, like let's

18:26

imagine that you're driving down the

18:28

road and the cars coming the

18:30

other way and the headlights get

18:33

in your eyes and they're really

18:35

bright and you're struggling to see,

18:37

that's an obvious safety issue. I

18:40

mean, it's not disputed that headlight

18:42

glare is a safety issue that

18:44

is important. The question is how

18:47

much of a danger is it?

18:49

And how can you measure that?

18:51

Because with a government agency like

18:53

NHTSA, you need hard data, you

18:56

need proof. And when you're trying

18:58

to measure so like... One study

19:00

that gets that gets pointed out

19:03

is that the IHS, they said

19:05

that there was a like 20%

19:07

reduction in car accidents with cars

19:10

that have good safety ratings for

19:12

their headlights, right? Basically, the short

19:14

version is it's really hard to

19:17

measure something that's tied in as

19:19

intrinsically with everything else in the

19:21

way that the highway operates. And

19:23

without that strict measurement of how

19:26

dangerous carheadlight brightness is, you know,

19:28

it seems that NHTSA is a

19:30

little stuck and a little unsure

19:33

about how to approach it, how

19:35

to gauge it, and how to

19:37

fix it. Yeah, and you know,

19:40

NHTSA is not the only player

19:42

here. There's also... car manufacturers. How

19:44

are they responding? Because it sounds

19:47

like their customers are not happy.

19:49

Yeah, it's really interesting. Car manufacturers

19:51

at any time could make headlights

19:53

that were, you know, a little

19:56

bit less bright, but still fit

19:58

the rule. rulebook of what NHTSA

20:00

requires for a safe level of

20:03

brightness. They could dial it back

20:05

at any time, any of these

20:07

car companies could. And they

20:09

could market that, and maybe that

20:12

would work. But for whatever

20:14

reason, they don't do it. And

20:16

the car companies, their number one

20:18

goal is to sell cars, and

20:20

whatever makes sense for that is

20:22

why, you know, they... they make

20:24

the decisions that they do, generally

20:26

speaking. Like NHTSA was created because

20:29

car companies were not prioritizing safety

20:31

in cars. So, you know, it's

20:33

a shame that car companies can't

20:35

be relied upon to fix this

20:37

issue on their own. And, you

20:39

know, when you try to speak

20:41

to them, they don't even really

20:43

acknowledge it. Like, I'd reached out

20:46

to, like, probably about a dozen

20:48

car companies. Only got an interview

20:50

with one. I think maybe two

20:52

or three also responded and said

20:55

no, you know, and they're, and

20:57

they're, I just never heard from.

20:59

That's writer Nate Rogers. If

21:01

regulators and car companies aren't

21:03

taking action, is there anything

21:05

we can do to avoid

21:08

getting blinded on the roads?

21:10

One more break, and we'll find

21:12

out. Support

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22:58

today. We've talked about the rules of

23:00

the road, or black thereof, when it

23:02

comes to bright headlights. How are we

23:05

supposed to manage while we wait for

23:07

regulations to catch up? Automotive and tech

23:09

journalists Tim Stevens told me the worst

23:11

offenders? actually aren't new cars. Well, you

23:14

know, there are certainly really bright lights

23:16

in a lot of new cars, but

23:18

if you look at the Reddit forums

23:21

and other places where people are complaining,

23:23

a lot of these complaints are actually

23:25

coming from aftermarket headlights. So we're seeing

23:28

a lot of aftermarket retrofit kits for

23:30

older cars, particularly on larger trucks, many

23:32

of which are not legal. And the

23:34

result of that is incredibly blinding, incredibly

23:37

bright headlights, which can be pretty annoying

23:39

and frankly damaging to other people's eyes. because

23:41

you're blowing my mind a little bit here.

23:43

So if I get a car with these

23:46

headlights, it's not an accident. Like I have

23:48

to actively choose to get these bright ass

23:50

headlights. It definitely depends on the model. Certainly

23:52

higher end newer models, that kind of thing,

23:54

do come with super bright headlights. We see

23:56

a lot of bright LED technology, that kind

23:59

of thing. But most. Modern cars do

24:01

include brighter headlights, LEDs built in, but

24:03

when you're talking about older cars, cars

24:05

that maybe came out 10 or 15

24:07

years ago at that point, that's kind

24:10

of an active thing where a lot

24:12

of owners are replacing maybe broken headlights

24:14

or they want something brighter, or they

24:17

want something brighter, or they want something

24:19

brighter, that's maybe comparable to a more

24:21

modern car, and they're going out to

24:23

Amazon or eBay or somewhere else and

24:26

buying aftermarket retrofit kits, which may or

24:28

may not be legal. thing we can

24:30

do to get these modified lights dimmed.

24:32

It's really a question of enforcement. A

24:35

lot of states like Michigan, for example,

24:37

they don't have any kind of annual

24:39

inspection at all. So at that point,

24:41

it just becomes an issue for the

24:43

police to basically pull someone over if

24:45

they think that someone's headlights are too

24:47

bright. And that's asking a lot of

24:49

our law enforcement officers out there. So

24:51

there are a lot of very strict

24:54

defining rules when it comes to new

24:56

vehicles coming on the road, that kind

24:58

of thing. But for older vehicles, people

25:00

who are either maintaining them in illegal.

25:02

A constant refrain we've heard

25:04

working on this episode is

25:06

that there's difficulty regulating and

25:08

car manufacturers aren't exactly, you

25:11

know, springing into action. Is

25:13

there? an effort to develop

25:15

technology that could successfully dim

25:17

these LED headlights. So we've

25:19

seen technologies to address that auto dimming

25:21

headlights is one of the kind of most

25:24

common things that we see these days where

25:26

a car will basically detect there's an oncoming

25:28

car and automatically go from high beam to

25:30

low beam. The problem is a lot of

25:32

the early implementations of this technology were pretty

25:34

bad, particularly on Tesla cars, for example. I

25:37

used to have a Tesla Model S and

25:39

it was so bad at identifying other cars.

25:41

It would just leave the headlights on full

25:43

blastsasts for weight. too long and I would

25:45

have other people flashing me all the time

25:47

and I felt awful because the car was

25:50

just really bad at identifying other people and

25:52

dropping those headlights down. So that technology

25:54

is getting better but really I think the better

25:56

solution is kind of coming down the road we're

25:58

just sort of starting to see. that now,

26:00

which is what's called an adaptive beam

26:02

headlight or an active matrix headlight, which

26:04

is kind of a much more advanced

26:06

technology. It really gets rid of the

26:08

old high beam load beam paradigm, but

26:10

that really could change things quite a

26:12

bit. Can you tell us more about

26:15

that adaptive beam technology, you know? Is

26:17

it successful? How does that work? Yeah,

26:19

it's pretty exciting stuff. So basically, you

26:21

know, since the dawn of cars pretty

26:24

much, we've had a high beam and

26:26

a low beam. When there's nobody else

26:28

around, you flip on the high beams,

26:30

it lights everything up, everything is great,

26:33

and when you are maybe in town

26:35

or there's a car ahead of you,

26:37

it lights, everything is great, and when

26:39

you are maybe in town or there's

26:42

a car ahead of you, or there's

26:44

a car ahead of you, with an

26:46

adaptive beam system, something like that. You're

26:48

kind of getting rid of that differentiation, and

26:50

now basically everything is on all the time.

26:53

You're shooting out a lot of light in

26:55

a lot of different directions, but now the

26:57

car is advanced enough to be able to

26:59

identify oncoming traffic, pedestrian cyclists, and

27:02

it can basically individually dim. individual portions

27:04

of the headlights to block out those

27:06

things that would be blind to other

27:08

people. So think of it like an

27:11

advanced monitor on HDTV, that kind of

27:13

thing, where we have portions of the

27:15

display that are bright white and portions

27:17

that are black. It's the same basic

27:19

idea, that are bright white and portions

27:22

that are black. It's the same basic

27:24

idea. You've got a bunch of small

27:26

LEDs and mirrors in your headlights now,

27:28

which can block out individual portions of

27:31

light. It's really remarkable technology. And as

27:33

is the case with many cool things in cars,

27:35

it's been available in Europe and in the rest

27:37

of the world for quite a few years. It's

27:39

only been made legal in the US since 2022,

27:41

but because it takes a long time for auto manufacturers

27:44

to bring new technology to market, it's

27:46

still taking some time for them to

27:48

be able to bring these new headlights

27:50

to the American market. So that technology

27:52

is really promising, we can have really

27:54

bright, really amazingly high tech headlights, but

27:56

theoretically without the glare. But again, it's

27:58

only going to be on. the newest

28:00

and highest end car so it's going to

28:02

be a long time before we see those

28:04

really on the majority of cars on the

28:06

road. Okay, in the meantime while we're waiting

28:09

for that to happen, are there things we

28:11

can do when we're driving at night if

28:13

we're struggling to see with those bright lights?

28:15

from a car that's coming directly at you,

28:17

the advice that I've got is to look

28:19

at the white line on the side of

28:21

the road off to the right of your

28:23

fender as you're driving ahead. Basically, that allows

28:26

you to keep an eye of where your

28:28

car is going, but without looking directly at

28:30

the headlines. I think that's the safest place

28:32

that you can look at. But there is

28:34

some technology that is much more available on

28:36

modern cars now, which will help for really

28:38

bright lights coming up from behind you. rear

28:41

view mirrors that are getting to be more

28:43

common, particularly in larger SUVs and trucks, where

28:45

basically instead of having a traditional mirror to

28:47

look backwards, you now have a camera pointing

28:49

backwards, and when you flip the little switch

28:51

on the bottom of the rear view mirror,

28:53

it actually pops over to basically integrated LCD

28:56

that's built into the mirrors. So instead of

28:58

having the reflection of the lights coming at

29:00

you, you're looking at a camera feed, and

29:02

that camera feed can block out those really

29:04

bright headlights. Well,

29:09

Tim, thank you so much for

29:11

that. Yeah, you're welcome. I'm happy

29:14

to help. Remember John Below, who

29:16

ended up having and loving a

29:18

job no kid dreams of, being

29:20

a lighting scientist? I asked him

29:23

what solutions he'd suggest for the

29:25

bright lights problem, too. There are

29:27

LED lights that are a warm

29:29

white color that would look very

29:32

similar to halogen lights, and they

29:34

would be much more comfortable to

29:36

look at at night. So that's

29:38

one possibility. Another possibility and something

29:41

we probably should pay more attention

29:43

to is the aim of our

29:45

headlights. Headlight aim is something that

29:47

some states, but not most, actually

29:50

require as part of their safety

29:52

inspections. So, you know, drivers could

29:54

ask their mechanic once a year

29:56

to have their headlight aim checked

29:59

and as to adjust it if

30:01

needed. Is there any chance that

30:03

we could get something from a

30:06

federal regulators that all automakers would

30:08

be required to do across the

30:10

country? Yes, the Federal Department of

30:12

Transportation is Very interested in the

30:15

glare question. They've been getting a

30:17

lot of complaints from the public

30:19

in the last 20 to 30

30:21

years about glare specifically. And so

30:24

they have been looking into what

30:26

might be done. Certainly what could

30:28

be done is some upper limits

30:30

on the overall intensity from low

30:33

beam headlights. That's one possibility. Maybe

30:35

some restrictions on the height of

30:37

headlight heights on vehicles is another

30:39

possibility. So there are some things

30:42

that could be integrated into regulations

30:44

to help reduce the glare issue.

30:46

Before we go, we wanted to

30:49

go back to Mark Baker. The

30:51

guy who says he was so

30:53

incapacitated by headlights that he had

30:55

to quit his job. He's obviously

30:58

thought a lot about helping people

31:00

avoid being triggered by overly bright

31:02

headlights. So there are basically techniques

31:04

for survival. You can get blue

31:07

blocker type glasses with a yellow

31:09

tint or an orange tint. It

31:11

does help the glare so they

31:13

can try that. But it's really

31:16

sort of not safe because the

31:18

way LED light is it's a

31:20

directional light is very intense. And

31:22

I've tried them myself. I basically

31:25

can't see so I don't use

31:27

them. And so the empowerment comes

31:29

from our listeners contacting the government.

31:32

joining up with the Soft Lights

31:34

Foundation, contacting me, getting involved, and

31:36

let's fix this systemic problem. Thanks

31:38

so much to Mark Baker and

31:41

all our car and lighting experts

31:43

who helped us answer Reed's question

31:45

today. We're making a show soon

31:47

about post-high school graduation blues. If

31:50

you you have

31:52

a question about

31:54

those next steps,

31:56

give us a

31:59

call at 1 -800

32:01

at -8545. episode was produced and

32:03

episode was produced

32:05

and sound designed

32:08

by It was It

32:10

was edited by

32:12

Miranda Kennedy. It

32:15

was fact -checked by Melissa Hirsch. by

32:17

And Patrick Boyd was our engineer

32:19

this week. Boyd I'm your host,

32:21

John Glenn Hill. I'm Talk to you

32:23

soon. Bye! Talk to you soon. Bye!