Maybe it’s just me and my sensitive eyes, but here’s the problem I have: I pull up behind a QX56 or any Nissan/Infinity product that has LED taillights (the latest craze) and I’m blinded by the bright light emanating from them. Even after just half a second of direct exposure, if I look away I see trails of the LED matrix, which are really temporary blind spots in my field of vision. Most LED taillights are too bright, way too bright, blindingly bright. There is no reason for them to be this bright, especially when the vehicle is not moving. The fact that this is currently a premium feature means that, at least stateside, it is found almost exclusively on automatic-transmission cars which require the driver to stay on the breaks at stoplights. And it’s not just annoying, it’s a real, not perceived, safety concern:
You want as much night vision at night as possible. Red light is supposed to allow you to keep your night vision, but not when this bright!
- If I see trails and/or blind spots as I move my eyes around after exposure to super-bright LED tail lights, I’m going to be both distracted and have reduced vision.
- If I get a headache after exposure to super-bright LED tail lights, I’m going to be distracted and possibly impaired.
- If I am angry because of 2 & 3 above, I’m going to be distracted and may not make decisions as sound as a calm person would make.
A proposed solution: Don’t misunderstand – I’m all for using new technology to improve safety, and LED taillights are excellent in proper use cases. Doing more with less (less electricity), improved reliability (run cooler, last longer), and improved resiliency (if one LED dies you still have many left) are all important steps forward in automotive taillight technology. But for the love of God, put an auto dimmer on them so that when the vehicle is not moving you don’t risk the vision of those behind you! Too unsafe you say, what if you’re pulled over the side of the road, you want them to be as bright as possible right? Well, these high-end cars have lots of sensors on them, but that rear parking sensor to good use – if there’s a solid object behind your car w/in 10 feet, dim them LEDs! Concessions: For any of these, I concede allowing full-on operation.
- Detect if it’s dark outside. If not, go ahead, and have a blast!
- Look for a car behind w/in 10 feet. No car? Engage a super beam of red LED fire!
- Rate of deceleration says this is panic braking? Maintain full-on operation.
And so forth, manufacturers can figure this out. Fall back to full-on if any sensors are not operational if you have to. Or simply limit the maximum brightness – you don’t have to be the brightest thing on planet Earth, you know?
Even scarier is that there are no regulations for this. Sure the gov’t requires basic minimum criteria to be met, but because this has not been a concern there’s no regulation to protect the eyes of motorists in this scenario. Manufacturers will blind you just because they can, probably because a certain demographic that buys high-ticket items think it looks cool (you know, the “bigger/more is better” mentality crowd). That’s fine and dandy when it doesn’t affect me, the guy behind you, but once you start intruding into my life, putting my safety in danger, screw you, that’s not cool!
Happy and safe motoring!
Note: I used Nissan as one example but everybody’s jumping onto the LED hype bandwagon and dropping these into their cars. Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Cadillac (the “strip” LEDs), you name it, they’ve got it.
