EPISODE · May 26, 2025 · 40 MIN
What Next - The Glaring Problem with Headlights
from What Next | Daily News and Analysis
As What Next celebrates Memorial Day, please enjoy this episode from our colleagues at Decoder Ring. What Next will be back in your feed tomorrow.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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
What this episode covers
As What Next celebrates Memorial Day, please enjoy this episode from our colleagues at Decoder Ring. What Next will be back in your feed tomorrow.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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
NOW PLAYING
What Next - The Glaring Problem with Headlights
No transcript for this episode yet
Similar Episodes
Mar 26, 2026 ·1m
Mar 19, 2026 ·34m
Feb 18, 2026 ·11m
Feb 11, 2026 ·45m