It should be required that all headlights emit polarized light with an equivalent polarized light filter on all windshields

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Iron_Eagl@reddit

This was presented over 100 years ago but the auto companies didn't go for it: https://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/hrbbulletin/11/11-001.pdf

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tjmaxal@reddit

Unfortunately, at the time the idea was very polarizing…

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Mediocre-Metal-1796@reddit

Oh i should send this to the EU, they would love this more than the not detachable pet caps!

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Bastulius@reddit (OP)

It would have to be made law, and probably subsidized at least at first

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Virtual-Metal9290@reddit

It would only cost a couple of dollars per car for polarizing film at scale.

This was more problematic back when headlights weren't bright enough, but that is not the problem today.

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SmurfRiding@reddit

It probably won't work with reflective material. So construction workers, cat eyes and other standardised signs won't work as intended.

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100Dampf@reddit

Sounds very American, because fuck pedestrian I guess

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Pass_It_Round@reddit

Having to wear sunnies to go for a walk at night?

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FortWendy69@reddit

If this was the case they’d make non tinted ones surely. Also if you didn’t wear them it would just be the same as now, you’re not losing anything.

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theyyg@reddit

Polarized lenses are 50% “tinted” by the nature of polarization.

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This is probably the biggest and most-overlooked flaw in the whole thread; polarised windscreens are *tinted* windscreens - so you'd be driving around at all times with a level of tint in the glass that is way darker than the current maximum for tinted car windows.

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OverallManagement824@reddit

My research back in the day said polarizing film is available down to 15% tint. If you account for how much less blinded you'd be from traffic, better night vision, I'm not sure we'd really be losing all that much visibility. Maybe when alone on a dark road where this idea wouldn't help at all, it would be a little worse, but you can just use your brights then because there's no other traffic.

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DeathByBlue5834@reddit

"If we did this headlights could be way brighter without blinding all incoming traffic"

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FortWendy69@reddit

Oscar Wilde

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meelar@reddit

No, it would be worse than it is now, because car headlights would be even more blinding.

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tjmaxal@reddit

There’s already a famous song about it

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Tunderstruk@reddit

Idk about america, but here in Sweden people only use the high beams when they are driving outside of cities where there are no lights (I assume this would be used for high beams only)

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DisastrousSir@reddit

In the US, we have many trucks that the headlights are already nearly a meter or more off the ground and even the standard bulbs are extremely bright, let alone the high beams. People in standard sized cars get absolutely blinded by these.

Then there are people who lift their trucks even higher and blind nearly everyone on the road

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mrkstr@reddit

Same in America.

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OfficialDeathScythe@reddit

The European way is automatic high beams and auto leveling headlights. Quality German engineering

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mrkstr@reddit

We have that in America too. But polarized light would still reduce glare. Brilliant idea.

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OfficialDeathScythe@reddit

I like the led matrix lights that the newer bmws come with for this. Of course, not every car has em but it’d be nice if it was the new standard some day. The ones that can turn off an individual led so that the high beams hit everywhere but other cars. They have a camera in the rear view mirror that can see where cars are and then to the other car it just looks like you’ve got dim headlights but to you you’ve got your brights on. I could see problem with polarization down the road. Like what happens when an aftermarket headlight accidentally has the wrong angle on the polarized filter and they appear invisible to other drivers, or some company doesn’t consider it when making their sunglasses and it causes someone to get hit by a car that they couldn’t even see (although why would you be wearing sunglasses at night. Idk there are just a few of my concerns)

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mrkstr@reddit

So, if it doesn't solve world hunger, generate infinite energy, and put a man on Mars, it's a bad idea? You know how many pedestrians I pass at night where I'm at? Almost zero. This idea makes driving safer and changes the lives of pedestrians zero. I don't see the downside.

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100Dampf@reddit

Brighter headlights blind pedestrians

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mrkstr@reddit

Oh, I see. I missed that in the original post. How about this, headlights stay the same brightness, but the polarization keeps oncoming drivers from being blinded? Or, the polarization is only on high beams, which are generally only used where there aren't any pedestrians?

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SolidOutcome@reddit

Walking while blind, isn't a huge risk. You can start/stop easily when blinded by bright lights.

Besides, lights are already blinding, this idea doesn't say to make them even worse

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meelar@reddit

This presumes that I'm walking next to an empty road that occasionally has one car on it. But most of the walking that people actually do at night occurs next to busy roads with lots of cars on them (because that's where pedestrians tend to be as well).

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BootsAndBeards@reddit

Those pedestrians are basically guaranteed to be run down in the streets if a car driving in the opposite direction passes by at the wrong time. Drivers are basically blind for a few seconds with the headlights we have now.

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Soft_Refuse_4422@reddit

Wrong sub, this is brilliant

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Mag-NL@reddit

Thisnis literally the opposite of brilliant. This is a horrible idea that only the most selfish thoughtless people would be in favour of.

We have machines that are already an enormous nuisance everywhere they go and OP wants to make them even worse.

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LogicalUpset@reddit

Okay I'm as anti car as the next guy but I'm having trouble wrapping my head around how this would make it worse

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Mag-NL@reddit

Light pollution, blinding pedestrians, cyclists, animals, etc.

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phathomthis@reddit

Go on brother Ezekiel, preach to the heretics.
By the way, how did ye fair at the last barn raising?

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Mag-NL@reddit

So just because I point out the undeniable fact that cars are a nuisance I am old fashioned now.

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Bastulius@reddit (OP)

I also despise cars and would love if they all went away in favor of public transit. But, in the US at least, unless we get a wildly different administration, stop all lobbying from car companies, and quintuple taxes while taxing the rich, cars are here to stay. So we might as well make them a bit safer especially for pedestrians (brighter headlights + not being blinded means much much easier to see pedestrians at night)

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Tunderstruk@reddit

Why is this a horrible idea exactly? What about this would make cars worse?

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JGG5@reddit

Unironically a great idea. But you’d also want to subsidise the purchase of polarised glasses (or glasses covers) for pedestrians, motorcyclists, and bicyclists. Roads aren’t just for automobiles.

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Varjek@reddit

This might be the first idea I’ve seen in r/crazyideas that is really onto something!

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I-own-a-shovel@reddit

Came here to say that!

Fuck those blue-ish night hawks blinding beams from hell that toast both your optical nerves in a yocto second.

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I-own-a-shovel@reddit

This would be awesome

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theyyg@reddit

Imagine for a second, that your windshield filtered polarized light and all headlights are similarly polarized. Your windshield would reduce and potentially eliminate the light from oncoming traffic. Your windshield will also eliminate the majority of light coming from your headlights.

Your headlights exist to illuminate the road in the dark. The light returning to your eyes from your own headlights is reflected backed to a position very close to the origin of the light. (Your eyes and the headlights at almost the same angle from the road.) Simple reflections like the kind used to send your headlights’ light back to your eyes only marginally changes the polarization of the light. So you won’t be able to see the lit road from your own headlights.

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atomicshrimp@reddit

But your windscreen would still be 50% tinted all of the time (which is a lot more than we consider safe and permissible at the moment).

Also your headlights would waste 50% of the light that the lamps output, so those polarised filters are going to get hot.

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theyyg@reddit

I’m only an idiotic because I was thinking that light from your own headlights would get filtered. The rest is still true, and it’s not a good idea. —> “The polarization filter already reduces the light by half”

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ZiskaHills@reddit

If you angled the polarization at 45 degrees and matched your windshield and headlights to the same polarization, you'd be able to see your own headlights effect clearly, but oncoming drivers' windshields, (by nature of facing the opposite direction), would have their polarization rotated by 90 degrees, thus providing the desired effect.

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theyyg@reddit

Doh! That’s what I get for doing Reddit late at night. You are right. You’d be able to see your own reflected light (for all the reasons that I said you couldn’t).

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MxM111@reddit

You lose more than half of light this way. The film also will be noticeably heated up, potentially melting plastic, so something like glass would be needed.

As for polarizer on windshields, you would also lose more than half of light from any other sources but your headlights (where you lose half in the headlight itself). So losing half light at night is not good idea.

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atomicshrimp@reddit

So you can't see oncoming cars?

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Bastulius@reddit (OP)

Polarized light scatters a bit so it would still be visible but not blinding. You could even have the polarized light be super bright and then dimmer lights that go through the filter

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Known-Archer3259@reddit

Couldn't you do this with those fancy array headlights? You could have the majority be polarized with a few dimmer non polarized

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atomicshrimp@reddit

Why would you need to? The purpose of the matrix lights is already to do the thing this thread is about.

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BumblingOnwards@reddit

Or presumably the light of your own headlights?

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iCameToLearnSomeCode@reddit

Polarization isn't maintained when the light bounces off of something.

So you'd still see the road lit up ahead of you, you just wouldn't see light coming directly from other people's headlights.

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atomicshrimp@reddit

I suppose the diffuse scatter would disrupt most of the polarisation.

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BumblingOnwards@reddit

I defer to your better knowledge, like the man who runs a shelter for blind stags, I’ve got no-eye deer! 😃

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OfficialDeathScythe@reddit

It doesn’t have to be a perpendicular filter, if they angle filter on the windshield they can adjust how bright it would be

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SolidOutcome@reddit

Easily solvable. Dim driving lights that aren't polarized. We already have them.

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n00b001@reddit

Nah, the polarized light from he headlights you wouldn't see, but the scattered light off of the road/trees/etc you would see

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safe-viewing@reddit

Yeah I don’t think they thought this through

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kondorb@reddit

This is a great idea, I’d vote for it. Windshields wouldn’t need to be polarised - it’s much cheaper to just have polarised glasses. Which we’re already wearing when driving.

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