There are three primary factors that have shifted in the past few decades that caused headlights to appear brighter and cause more glare.
Vehicles are getting taller. Adding to that, the color of many headlights has shifted from a warmer, yellow hue to a harsher, blue-white one. And finally, most cars have at least one headlight that’s misaligned. A key issue is that, as cars are produced, there isn’t a specific entity tasked with ensuring alignment.
Adaptive driving beams automatically adjust the high beams emitted from LED car headlights in real time to avoid blinding pedestrians and other drivers. But don’t expect to see it anytime soon on American roads due to the complexity of the NHTSA’s regulations around adaptive driving beams, which differ tremendously from Europe.
