LED's are Light Pollution

[Detective D]

Light pollution Emitting Diodes

I don't have anything against them really. But the way thee tech has been applied is driving me nuts lately.
They take much less power to run. I get that, that was the whole big deal with them. I think they have usefull applications.

I don;t think headlights are one of those applications. Maybe someday.
It seems the solution to "they don't shine far enough" has been to super-saturate the headlight with them in an effort to create enough blinding white hot light to "overpower" the darkness.
When I go to pass one of the new trucks with these burning hot as the sun headlight jobs, I notice my dims shine further down the road then their brights do, and I am just pulling alongside them. When they dim their lights it is absurd how pathetic the projection is. The area within 15 feet in front of the truck is lit up like it is noon, don;t get me wrong, but the distance is pathetic.
This would be in my '13 Charger with the HID stuff in it yet.

Know whats better then my Charger? My old school 90's design Dakota lights.

It has become readily apparent to me every morning that the older "crappy yellow" lights found on many 90's vehicles are simply superior for projecting the light in most every way.

But it carries into other things too, the interiors for instance.
When I bought my Charger, wife and I loved the display screen. The whole car was at your fingertips, Chrysler did a really good job with the user interface for things like heat control etc on these cars. Both digital and manual controls. The dash cluster is lit by some LED, probably from the back, not sure. This at least is pretty toned down.
I have come to wish there was a dimmer or off switch on the screen. After running my Dakota all winter so far as my daily, sitting in there in the dark, with only the very soft greenish-blue glow of the dash cluster and radio button, and old long reaching "yellow" lights for the road ahead, I realize the strain my eyes are under every day from almost every light source at this point. The display panels for computers are one thing, giant TV's, but the headlights, street lights now in some spots(not many yet thankfully) all make me squint.
And thing is they aren;t even all that bright. it is just the color of this light and the sort of micro-intensity of it.
My town has street lights from circa 1995 down main street. No one thinks they are bright. And yet, despite being able to stare directly at them without having to even blink because the light is so soft, the entire street is still lit up. It may be a "dusk" or yellowish hue color, but the entire street is lit up by these "old crappy" lights that don;t bother my eyes at all.


Well this got long, but I wanted to vent(sorry) as I don;t see the world returning to "old tech" despite the new tech not fully overcoming it's drawbacks. I wish we could blend it better or something, or maybe design some tech to actually let LED's project and run at a "warmer" light vs. the current trend of making 20 billion candlepower lamps that only project 20 feet. Someone needs to figure out how to get that light reflected out there so we can turn the dang things down a tad

 

[hdwrench]

i’m not a fan on the new white hot headlights either . i don’t like the light and don’t think it necessary for low beam lighting. maybe on road lights or high beam …. it sure is a different lighting and comes in many qualities. the cheap ones offer a very poor quality that is a strain on the eyes ….

 

[Don Frelier]

I almost hit a deer last evening because the on coming headlights were blinding me.

 

[Detective D]

I almost hit a deer last evening because the on coming headlights were blinding me.

That's what I mean though too-
They hurt your eyes. But then, from the other side of things, they really are sucky headlights! All that white blinding candle power and the design is so bad they only go 2/3 the way down the road as far as my 11 year old Charger lights and maybe half what my 25 year old Dakota lights do.
The current trend of "MORE POWER!!" and ultra saturation is not the way to go.

 

[toolmanmike]

Calling @Slantsixdan, the professor of automotive lighting.

 

[Car #4]

I agree, I hate meeting them. The lights in my 74 Challenger are totally adequate. I’ve never wanted for better lighting with them and it’s safer because I’m not blinding the oncoming driver.

 

[Sam69sat]

I almost hit a deer last evening because the on coming headlights were blinding me.

I live in the country and i know exactly what you're talking about. I have a notion to get a million candlepower spotlight so i can light these ******** up and let them know how it feels to be blinded by their oncoming lights.

 

[cr8crshr]

I personally don't drive much at night so that doesn't affect me. But in the past when I had to, they blinded me all the time. Seems more drivers today do not adjust their headlights as was once the norm. Sometimes the new is far worse than the old!!! cr8crshr/Bill

 

[Scott Engelhardt]

LEDs are both a blessing and a curse. When I first bought the 65 we were coming home in the dark the first time, I thought how the hell did we drive with these piss poor headlights back in the day? I have LEDs now and I am a lot more comfortable when we have to drive at night.

 

[440 PHIXX]

I call them “asshole lights”.

 

[Geoff 2]

LEDs are more reliable than incandescent lamps so they are better in that respect.

 

[JackR]

I thought it was just me. Two vehicles I’ve noticed are the worst, new ford pickups and Toyota 4Runners.

 

[Detective D]

I thought it was just me. Two vehicles I’ve noticed are the worst, new ford pickups and Toyota 4Runners.

The Fords are the worst. And the headlights perform terribly for all that white-sun intensity. That is one of the vehicles I first noticed my "yellow" Charger lights were outperforming on dim vs the Ford's high beams.
Unless you only want to see about 20 feet. Then the area is lit up like it is high noon on a clear day.
I think they designed the lights to look like they wanted and fit into the body how they wanted, without function design.

 

[Detective D]

LEDs are both a blessing and a curse. When I first bought the 65 we were coming home in the dark the first time, I thought how the hell did we drive with these piss poor headlights back in the day? I have LEDs now and I am a lot more comfortable when we have to drive at night.

Did you try replacing the sealed beams with anything made after 1990? The '79 F250 I grew up with had two square lights and would make the stop sign reflect red from a mile and a half away. Not like you could see or anything else was lit up out that far, but that always amazed me how far those lights would carry. Both lights were replaced in the late 80's with newer Sylvania units.
I also replaced 3 of the 4 in an 84 Capri I used to have. I sold the car before I did it, but I was going to swap the last one because it was quite noticable how much less light it put out then the new ones.

I think they about perfected sealed beam just in time to replace with the modular bulbs we all know that went on for the next 3 decades. Those were also nice lights, and cheaper to replace.
I think LED is a huge step sideways, and in many instances backwards.

 

[Detective D]

So in my curiosity, I was looking at why LED's seem like they have such an eye irritating attribute. Turns out it is mostly baked in.
Apparently science knew 20 years ago that blue light had notable health harming effects. I know growing up the sunscreen people touted the bad effects of "UV rays from the sun" and the whole number scheme for sunblock was invented etc.
Turns out though that more focused study found blue light from artifical sources was harmful to living tissue. I had always heard about studies that people exposed to "screens" were picking up mild radiation and it increased instances of illness and other things, like insomnia. Mostly that came from studies done in schools with classrooms that had several computer screens vs classrooms without.
But I read a few interesting more focused studies where they exposed lab mice to blue light and then examined tissue and found essentially the mice exposed to only blue light vs mice that were exposed to red light had significantly more tissue damage.
So apparently blue light doesn't care if it is from the sun or an artificial light, it just loves to wreck your eyes and skin.

Guess which side of the spectrum LED's lean very hard to in an effort to make them "brighter" for common lighting?

So this has been a thing for a while and I never knew about it. They even sell these: (random choice out of several)

https://www.amazon.com/MOSISO-Computer-Blocking-Protector-Protection/dp/B07V6X2H9Z/ref=sr_1_8?keywords=blue%2Blight%2Bblocking%2Bscreen%2Bprotector&qid=1707049141&sr=8-8&th=1

I think I might pick one up just to see if I can tell the difference as an experiment.

 

[RT SE 440]

I'm running HID globes in both my headlights and spot lights on my 4wd which are a lot stronger than LED but I'm running projectors on the headlights which directs the beam is a cut line spread but it's not a distance beam but are below the eye level of drivers which won't blind the on coming driver unless you are driving in a real low sports car or if i hit a dip in the road & then they will blind you, but there is a solution which are self leveling headlights . My spot lights have no projectors and throw a fantastic beam i can see a mile ahead. The projectors used in my headlights are amazing as the way they direct the beam and it's like pure daylight in front of your car but what happens the cowboys out there install these led globes without the projectors which in turn is what you are being blinded by. I've experimented with different spectrum colors from blue which is around 6-7k to yellow around 4300k which is closer to natural sun light which gives you a lot better vision as far as LED they can be used in the same way but it all depends on the projector.i have an LED torch that you wouldn't believe how far this thing projects the light .I now have replaced my hunting spot lights with a hand held torch that's how good these things are.

 

[68-500]

Not sure about your Charger dash lights but, the wifes 2016 Chyrsler 300 the instrument and screen were dimmed.
I haven’t done any new vehicle research in the last decade. Ive been assuming that the LEDS I meet are owner installed. And that cars still come standard with halogen or HID. Am I wrong?

 

[Detective D]

Not sure about your Charger dash lights but, the wifes 2016 Chyrsler 300 the instrument and screen were dimmed.
I haven’t done any new vehicle research in the last decade. Ive been assuming that the LEDS I meet are owner installed. And that cars still come standard with halogen or HID. Am I wrong?

Short answer: Yes.
The new Ford trucks especially have terrible design LEDs.

My dash lights and screen on my Charger do have a dim when the headlights come on. It is still far and away a different animal then my old Dakota.
I guess I am just getting sick of light-blaring screens and LED lights in my face all the time.

 

[F4R/T]

I can’t stand when folks take halogen housings and stuff the LED bulbs in there.. Usually it’s a lifted truck and the lights have never been adjusted so it’s a total **** show . My eyes really struggle with blue bright led lights wether in my mirror or on coming traffic they produce such a powerful glare. The effects of a less draw and maybe a longer life( they still get dimmer as they age) is a horrible trade off for the oncoming traffic. Astigmatisms make it much worse . Folks don’t care and the government doesn’t enforce DOT requirements for forward lighting ... so be like the blues brothers and get a pack of smokes and some dark sunglasses for night driving !

 

[Richard Cranium]

Well, as someone who’s owned a few F150’s, I can tell you that the LED headlights are freakin’ awesome! If you see me coming and the headlights bother you, just put on your sunglasses.