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If you are using high beams because your car's normal lights aren't working properly than that's another matter altogether. Under normal conditions, the standard headlights are good enough for nearly all drivers - even if those headlights are non HID, LED, or whatever.
This totally depends on where you drive. On a twisty Vermont secondary road with no shoulder, no reflectors, and the painted line mostly worn out, it's pretty easy to out-drive low beams going the speed limit. Everybody uses their high beams because you'd hit things otherwise. A deer or a bear at 45 or 50 mph often means a tow truck.
I think one of the issues is so many cars have the automatic on lights that are tied to a sensor. I think some of these cars are sensitive enough that lights in parking lots and city street lights are enough to trick the sensor into thinking it's daylight outside.
Regarding dimming the lights, if you can't see far enough down the road to drive at a safe speed, you should have your headlights adjusted. They may well be aimed straight down in front of you. Another alternative is you have the dash lights turned up so high they are washing out your vision. I was driving once with my FIL in his Toyota and he kept complaining that he couldn't see. Finally pulled over to check his lights and had me take over driving. I couldn't see either. Finally I figured out he had his dashboard lights turned up all the way it was dazzling my eyes.
I can think of a lot of reasons, for starters if for some reason you need to pull over on left hand side of the road turn your damn headlights off.
A bit of a thread hijack but I remember crawling down a Vermont secondary road in a snowstorm at night. I was maybe doing 25 mph in a posted 50 zone. The snowbanks were the only way you could distinguish road from not road. Off in the distance, I see emergency flashers. I slow down a bit and start easing left to pass what I identify as a car parked on the shoulder. As I ease left, the perspective of the car with the flashers doesn't change. I get within a couple hundred feat and realize it's some moron coming straight at me with headlights off and flashers running. I got pretty close to a head-on collision.
Idiots around here run the gamut. I see people driving with no lights on, only DRLs on, and pinheads with the brights on. How hard is it to use your headlights correctly?
I've been noticing exactly the same thing in recent years. It seems I can't drive more than just a few miles at night without encountering at least one example of all of the above.
I get that always-illuminated instrument clusters contribute to the problem of driving without lights or only the DRLs at night, but it's not like that's a new feature. The first vehicle I owned with a continuously illuminated dash was a base trim 1988 Honda Accord, and everything I've owned since then (no "premium" brands in the mix) has had the same.
Headlights are also better theses days than the sealed beams many of us used to have years ago. Yet, that doesn't stop motorists from driving well-illuminated city streets and expressways with their high beams always on, and failing to dim when following behind or approaching other motorists.
I think as others said, it's mainly because people don't realize they are not on. Also, on my last car, the switch options were only Auto which was also the off position, parking, or low beam. But on the new car, there is also an off position which I don't think should be there.
I will say the headlights on this car are far better than the one I had before. Plus, the high beams turn on automatically if it's dark and there are no cars approaching or in front. Then if I come behind a car or one is coming toward me, they turn off. It seems very accurate.
When it rains, the wipers automatically turn on and the headlights as well if they weren't already on.
Another thing I noticed is the new car has a low beam icon that shows when the lights are on. My old car didn't have this.
What annoys me, is when people drive in heavy fog or rain and turn their parking lights on instead of headlights. It is really hard to see and why is it a big deal just to turn on your headlights. Also, people drive during the day with their fog lights on, when there's no fog.
It just depends on the vehicles headlight design and the shape of the reflector. My Toyota trucks have excellent stock headlights.
My car is a Honda Civic. Here is an example that somebody did of the problem with using low beams. The first image is a pretty good representation of my field of vision when I'm driving with low beams. Except it doesn't seem quite that bright. The second image doesn't even come close to what I can see with my high beams on. I can see much farther ahead, and everything on both sides of the road.
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