Are headlights getting brighter?

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There have been significant leaps forward in in-car technology in recent years, one of which has been the efficiency of headlights. But while they might be more effective and efficient than before, are headlights getting brighter? And do they risk damaging our eyes?

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If you feel like you’re being blinded by oncoming traffic, you’re not alone; bright headlights have been a hot topic on internet forum site Reddit, and there are entire threads dedicated to complaining about the luminosity of modern headlights.

“I’ve just gotten home with spots burned into my retinas. When did headlights become 10,000-lumen daybrights? So many utes and 4WDs with ridiculously bright white lights, it’s like staring into a white dwarf,” wrote one user in a Reddit post.

Another post said, “Why do car manufacturers feel the need to keep making them brighter? What’s the purpose of it? Driving at night, especially in certain areas, makes me irrationally angry because of how blinding everything is. I’ve had to start driving at night with sunglasses on, and even then, it barely helps at all. Night driving used to be relaxing, but not anymore.”

But when did headlights get so bright? And are they a help or a hindrance to your vision at night? We investigate.

When did headlights get so bright?

Headlights have come a long way from using sealed beam globes to today’s LED headlights.

LEDs essentially became a standard fit in the mid-2010s, and that was the beginning of a bright future for headlights.

For reference, lighting is measured in lumens, which describes the perceived power of visible light emitted from a source.

Sealed beam globes came in many forms, the earliest of which was a tungsten filament that would emit somewhere in the realm of 500 lumens. Next came halogen globes that can emit anywhere between 1500 to 2500 lumens.

High-intensity discharge (HID) bulbs came after halogen globes and could emit roughly 3500 lumens, sometimes even more depending on the application.

The biggest leap in headlight brightness came with the introduction of LEDs. Depending on the vehicle, LED headlights can emit anywhere from 5000 to 10,000 lumens.

Therefore, headlights started getting much brighter when LEDs became more common.

However, Dom Willson, National Professional Services Advisor for Optometry Australia, offered another insight into why headlights seem so much brighter now.

“With ageing, the crystalline lenses inside our eyes start to lose transparency and become a little hazy,” Willson explained.

“This really starts to become noticeable over the ages of 50–60 and is probably the main reason you hear people complain about headlights appearing so much brighter and more glary now than decades ago. In other words, while the headlights may genuinely be a bit brighter, our susceptibility to glare increases as we age too.

“The eventual outcome of this increasing internal haziness of the human lens is the development of cataracts, and the only treatment is cataract surgery. Often, the haziness develops many years before surgery is required, so there is a long period of life when night driving is more difficult than in the younger years.”

Do headlights damage your eyes?

While it seems like something so bright could cause permanent damage to your eyes, the reality is that it’s unlikely you will see lasting effects.

Dom Willson said the effects of headlights are minuscule compared to the sunlight our eyes are exposed to each day.

“The brightness of headlights may have increased somewhat, but in terms of potential for damage to the eyes, it’s still trivial compared to the brightness (and damaging UV content) of unprotected sun exposure when outdoors in daylight,” he said.

“There’s no concern about damage to eyesight from headlights while driving at night. People who are concerned about damage to their eyes from light exposure should prioritise wearing UV-blocking sunglasses (and a hat) during the daytime.

“Lumens refers to the visible light emitted by a source, but the amount of light energy received by an eyeball depends on: the beam focus/spread, the distance away that the eyeball is, the exposure time, and the brightness of the source. Since there are so many variables, it’s hard to provide a single definitive answer. Still, realistically the only risk of retinal damage would be if someone deliberately stared at a headlight from less than one to two metres away for more than, say, five to 10 seconds or so.”

What to do if car headlights are bothering you

Willson also gave us some helpful tips on reducing the distracting impact of headlights while driving at night.

“Keep your windscreen scrupulously clean, inside and out. Any smudges, films, layers of grease or dirt, etc, can make the glare of other cars’ headlights much more difficult to deal with,” he said.

“People who have a minor vision deficiency that’s not noticeable during the daytime, and not bad enough to require wearing glasses during the daytime, may still benefit from wearing prescription glasses for night driving.

“This is because, at night, any small vision imperfections have a much greater effect on our vision due to less light at night and larger pupils at night. Your optometrist can advise whether a pair of night driving glasses is worth considering. Anti-reflective coatings on the lens surface are effective and highly recommended for night driving.

“Dryness of the eyes can also cause poorer vision quality. So avoid having the air-con vents directed at your face, or driving around with the window down; and if you know you’re prone to dry eyes, consider using a lubricating eye drop before you leave on your journey.”

How the car headlight has improved over time

Before everything, the first production cars used an acetylene gas lamp as their headlights; you would have to get out of the car and physically light them at nightfall. The flame was magnified by lenses and reflective materials.

Electric headlights date back as far as 1989 when they were fitted to the Columbia Electric Car, but they didn’t really take off until 1912, when Cadillac integrated the electric light system, along with electric ignition, onto some of its passenger vehicles.

Next came what is called a ‘sealed beam’. It’s essentially an electric light within a sealed lamp with reflectors that focus the light beam into one section, maximising the light available.

It was a quick switch from electric lights to sealed beam globes, which were first introduced in 1936 and then made the only acceptable fitment on all US cars in 1940, with the rest of the world following suit.

Small improvements were made to improve the overall intensity of the globes, including the introduction of halogen globes in 1960, which saw an increase in lumens. Then, high-intensity discharge (HID) headlights began production in 1991. All of these still retained the sealed beam design of a headlight, with only improvements made to the globe itself.

That was until LED headlights arrived. No longer was a big reflective lamp needed for a headlight; car manufacturers could instead use a very powerful, efficient, and compact LED as a headlamp and essentially decrease the size dramatically. These lights were introduced on cars in the early 2000s, and now, as of 2024, it’s hard to find a new vehicle that doesn’t utilise LEDs.

Another large leap was made in 2013 when Audi fitted what are called Matrix LED lights to an A8 in 2013. These are basically intelligent lights that can sense where a car is on the road and blackout that section so oncoming cars and those in front of you aren’t dazzled.

Matrix headlights have become an important fixture for many brands like BMW, Audi, Volkswagen and Toyota.

LED has become the main fixture, but there is one last technology: Laser. Laser lighting was first introduced on the BMW i8 in 2014 and then on several Audi and BMW models after that.

The system garnered a lot of controversy due to its brightness, exceeding the maximum brightness allowed on a headlight in the United States. Thus, it essentially needed to have its lighting power cut down for that market.

By 2024, both BMW and Audi had removed the laser system from new vehicles and have not confirmed whether they will return.

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