The low beams on newer US cars are already blinding.

Do people in the EU consistently behave politely and turn them off when appropriate?

The study is comparing "premium" headlights, which in the USA auto-lower for oncoming traffic, and in Europe auto-shade just that vehicle but leave the rest of the road fully illuminated.

I don't have enough driving experience between the two countries to compare driver behaviour.

Most new cars in Europe are using LED arrays that shut off specific zones based on oncoming traffic. Like a hyper specific "auto high beams" feature.

> shut off specific zones based on oncoming traffic. Like a hyper specific "auto high beams" feature.

and for a fraction of second they are indeed blinding, disorienting, and irritating other drivers and pedestrians

People don't turn off low beams at night, why should they? They turn off high beams even if everybody forgets them on sometimes but that's inevitable.

Low beams are getting too bright. I never turned my rear mirror into the anti glare position so often as in the last couple of years.

I'm not sure why you'd bother trying to converse with me if you thought I was asking about people turning off low beams at night.

Plenty of people turn on their high beams and don't bother to manage them. I guess automatic dimming systems should help with that. Looking a bit, they don't necessarily default to on in US vehicles, which is likely to minimize the benefit.

The auto-dim systems don't always work, either. My mother-in-law's Toyota has this feature, and it seems to work when it wants to.

Same with a 2020 Honda Civic. Those auto-dim headlights shut themselves off in a timely manner about 50% of the time.

No, cars in EU actually have periodic inspections that include lights test.

I wish we had inspections where I live in the US. We don't even have emissions tests. Some of the vehicles around me are just horrible.

> Do people in the EU consistently behave politely and turn them off when appropriate?

In the EU countries I usually drive in, yes they do. If they don't, you turn your own high beams on until their turn theirs off and generally they do it within a second or so, they had probably just forgot them.

One point here: nowadays most new cars have auto high-beam which turns off almost immediately when it senses light coming from the opposite direction. Some higher-end models have matrix led lights which allows them to have the high-beam on even when there's oncoming traffic and they turn off just some parts of the beam to avoid blinding the opposite driver.

Yes. Do people not reliably dip beams in the US? that must be horrible!

The problem is, lately you can't tell if they are normal or high beams. Something about the cooler color and sharper quality of the LED lights maybe? Often as I curse an oncoming driver for not dipping their beams I notice in my rearview they turn them on after they pass me. So they were low beams to begin with.

> The problem is, lately you can't tell if they are normal or high beams.

Properly leveled lights should cast the beam below the horizon: any person seeing the headlights situated above the their height should not be blinded by them. I suspect the etymology of "high beam" is because they project higher to allow seeing further (and blinding everyone in the path)

I remember when driving in the EU (France) that most cars allow you to adjust the angle of the beams, so you may have more light but it's often pointed down.

Unsure if that was just the few vehicles I drove or if it's EU-wide.

The adjustment you’re mentioning is most likely the knob for angle adjustment which are used if driving with a heavy load in the back. Some cars has suspension which levels the car automatically, for those the adjustment isn’t necessary.

Angle adjustment is useful even when not carrying a load. Angling the beams down onto the road at dawn and dusk provides good be-seen visibility without creating glare for other drivers.

Cars without manual angle adjustment have lost that courtesy gesture and just drive around glaring all the time.