Headlights feel dangerous

These new headlights are awful. After driving my new car in the dark for the first time, I experienced how bad they are. High beams were brighter, but not higher, and most of what was in front of me was utter blackness. Definitely not a safe feeling. A decent bicycle light held out the side window would do a better job.

Hopefully I can fix it with an adjustment...this sort of advice is exactly what makes PriusChat so useful. Thank you.

 

As a related sidenote, I've had vehicles which were nearly impossible drive at night in a snowstorm. Light from the headlights shines up into the falling snow, which is very disorienting. My new car doesn't shine light upwards, and driving in a blizzard is fine.

 

I've also experienced that tunnel-vision disorientation driving through falling snow. One solution that worked on a slow, winding road to a ski hill was to turn the headlights off...not really recommended, but the orange 'fog lights' were the right amount of light at the time. My solution to that problem now is not to drive in snowstorms. Which of course doesn't work for everyone....

 

Low beam also works, but not as well as some sort of visor along the top edge of the headlights.

 

I believe the original North American laws called for headlights to be on whenever the car was running. I read that Ralph Nader pushed for this. I believe the compromise reached with the automakers was to run the headlights in series, so that they did not consume so much power.

The updated legislation for LED lights is roughly equivalent in the amount of light output, I believe. At least that's how it seems when I switch off my headlights at night, leaving on only the driving lights.

 

Only the LE and SE don't have automatic headlights. So the rest of us don't even think about it.