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godelski parent
While I think that's part of it I can assure you there's also a lot of people running around with their brights on. I've seen them switch (after aggressively flashing mine) and the brights are a wider beam. So it is not just the intensity.

My running hypothesis is the autobright features on some cars is to blame. My friend drives around with his on and I definitely notice it doesn't properly react.

  > they just drive a tesla, which just have blinding lights
I was thinking of that Deer in the Headlights ad from years ago and then stumbled on Mercedes promoting this... 11 years ago...[0].

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3pTHSIYFlg

MobiusHorizons
I live in a pretty urban area, so maybe that's why I haven't seen so many brights. I've heard the autobright theory and it certainly makes sense though, especially in areas where people have a reason to use their brights.

> [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3pTHSIYFlg

I believe this technology is generally called adaptive headlights, and is implemented in quite a few cars. I believe some quirk of US laws (which specifies brightness at various points in the beam) actually prevents this feature from being implemented. Really sucks, because these new LED headlights are really hard to stand at night.

godelski OP
I live in an urban area, but not what I'd call a big city. There are plenty of dark areas so people do put on their brights even though it actually isn't necessary. I see people turn them on anytime there's 100ft without a streetlight. Though I've still seen some of this in major cities like LA, though I feel like the highbeam rate is lower.

Then again, I also see people turn them on in the fog and rain...

But I'm convinced it isn't a singular problem. I'm certain the LEDs are part of the issue, but not the whole story. I mean for example, improperly aligned headlights isn't as big of a problem when the lights aren't as bright. But when they are brighter then this matters a lot more. Hell, I've seen brand new vehicles be misaligned.

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