> They were severely over driving their headlights if what we are seeing is "reality" as seen by the onboard computer.

This is the salient point that I was looking for.

Interestingly, US and European headlights standards are very, very different and this accident is a clear example. US headlights are intended to "illuminate the roadway", whereas European headlights are intended to "illuminate obstacles on the road and in the margins". That's not just a wording difference, rather the part numbers for US-spec and European-spec headlight assemblies are different.