Are the Gen4 LED Headlights too bright?

Regarding people thinking headlights are on the high beam setting, I too have some of that problem, and considered most of the ideas expressed by others. However, after a number of tests I contrived, I found that the factory settings on my car (not necessarily yours) are as perfect as they could be. I love the fantastic illumination that my headlights give. I do much night driving, and I consider these lights make me much safer. I live in the Eastern Oklahoma Ozarks where we have many hills. When you are coming up over a hill meeting an oncoming car, the back of your car is lower that the front, raising your headlight beam. If you will observe the sharp cutoff at the top of you low beam, you will note that at that time it is above the windshield of the oncoming car. Since the low beam is just as bright as the high beam, the oncoming driver thinks you have your high beams on. Actually, on my car, Toyota has performed some kind of optical magic that actually makes the upper limit of the beam to the left of my car lower than it is directly in front, thus reducing (but not eliminating) said problem. You can easily see the shape of the cutoff line as you go through a dip in the road with your headlights in the low beam setting (or just by shining your lights on a wall in front of the car).

 

The issue isn't that the lights are too bright......people have been saying this ever since projectors came out. Wether it's HID or LED projectors.....it's been the same complaint.

When the cars bounce over bumps, it changes the pitch of the car causing the light to go higher which in turn shines it into peeps eyes. This was never an issue with reflector based headlights, why......cause the optics's were to "reflect " vs "project" so there was a natural glare......not the case with projectors.


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Toyota did make some headlight changes for 2017 that reduced glare and improved IIHS test results.

 

USA motor vehicle regulations are particularly keen IMHO, so why they didn't demand self leveling headlamps in Prii like Europe beats me!!!

 

It is the automobile insurance testing and rating that triggered the change, not regulations. They are still ramping up on the headlight test. In the future, it would not surprise me if they give a higher rating for self-leveling headlights.

The insurance industry is doing the testing to make vehicles safer and reduce insurance claims.

The government testing is less rigorous.

 

I meant the nation as a whole, regardless of the individual agencies interested.

 

I know this is fitted but I don't see them dip and rise on startup like I used to with my previous Xenons.

 

If you are referring to the brightness varying, the headlights probably use the 12 volt battery. MG1 that starts the engine uses the traction battery.
Also LEDs are much more efficient than Xenons so they require less power.

 

'Fraid not quite what harters meant. His headlamps would switch on then the beams would focus down to the road ahead before coming up to the ideal level, so as not to dazzle approaching traffic.

 

Spot on

 

Since ur in the U.K. I'm guessing ur Prii also has auto leveling headlights. The difference between Toyota & say BMW is that Toyota's auto level system doesn't calibrate when the lights turn on which is why u don't see them behave in the manner u described.


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Yes 4th gen Prius and corollas headlight is super bright and blinding, wait till you see the NX200T light geez they should make it yellowish rather than bright white. Which is very dangerous to our Naked Eyes