It's Not Your Imagination. Car Headlights Really Have Gotten Brighter. Why?

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Something seems to have happened to car headlights. In the last few years, many people have become convinced that they are much brighter than they used to be—and it's driving them to the point of rage. Headlight glare is now Americans' number one complaint on the road. The story of how and why we got here is illuminating and confounding. It's what happens when an incredible technological breakthrough meets market forces, regulatory failure, and human foibles.

So if you feel like everyone's driving around with their high beams on all the time, it's not your imagination. What once seemed like an obscure technical concern has gone mainstream. But can the movement to reduce glare actually do something about the problem?

In this episode, you'll hear from Nate Rogers , who wrote about the “headlight brightness wars” for The Ringer; Daniel Stern , automotive lighting expert and editor of Driving Vision News; and Paul Gatto, moderator of r/fuckyourheadlights .

This episode of Decoder Ring was written by Willa Paskin and Olivia Briley, and produced by Olivia Briley and Max Freedman. Our team also includes Katie Shepherd and supervising producer Evan Chung. Merritt Jacob is our Senior Technical Director.

If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, please email us at [email protected] , or leave a message on our hotline at 347-460-7281.

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Sources for This Episode

Rogers, Nate. “ Asleep at the Wheel in the Headlight Brightness Wars ,” The Ringer, Dec. 3, 2024.

Brend, Yvette. “ Headlights seem a lot brighter these days — because they are ,” CBC News, Dec. 24, 2024.

Donnelly, Claire and Meghna Chakrabarti. “ Why are headlights brighter than they used to be? ” On Point, WBUR, Feb. 7. 2025.

Kaplan, Adiel, Jean Lee, Joe Enoch, and Vicky Nguyen. “ Blinded by the light: Cars in the US still lack glare-reducing headlights ,” NBC News, May 11, 2023.

Mawajdeh, Hady. “ Why are car headlights so blindingly bright now? ” Vox, Apr. 5, 2025.

Tabuchi, Hiroko. “ It's Official: Stores Can No Longer Sell Most Incandescent Lights ,” New York Times, Aug. 1, 2023.

Trench, Mikael. “ Why Do Some Modern Car Headlights Look Blue? ” Slashgear, Feb. 12, 2025.

Wade, David. “ Why are headlights so bright? There may be a fix, but it's complicated ,” CBS Boston, Mar. 20, 2024.