Are Bright Headlights Pissing You Off? AAA Says You’re Not Alone

Picture the situation: You’re driving down the road at night in your SUV and you see an oncoming vehicle. Well, you probably don’t see much of anything as your vision is dominated by the glare of the oncoming car’s headlights. We’ve all experienced this, as well as the equally blinding situation of bright lights coming up behind you. And according to a recent AAA survey, drivers are experiencing an increase in being blinded by the light. But although the issue is an irritating one, has glare resulted in more crashes for drivers?

Although HID and LED lights have dramatically improved drivers’ forward view distance as the sun goes down, there has been an opposite consequence for oncoming drivers. The AAA survey on headlight glare shows that six in 10 drivers are having trouble with this potentially dangerous situation. Further, 73 percent of respondents said they believe the problem has worsened during the past 10 years. Many in the survey also noted it’s not just oncoming headlights that are causing issues, as they said severe glare also occurs in rearview and sideview mirrors.

According to the survey results, it’s reasonable to expect that these bright headlights and associated glare have led to more crashes. But according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), glare-related crashes haven’t increased, and IIHS goes as far as to say bright headlights have led to fewer accidents.

Indeed, a 2025 study revealed that the frequency of nighttime crashes due to glare hasn’t changed in nearly a decade. “Although it can certainly be uncomfortable, headlight glare contributes to far fewer crashes than insufficient visibility,” IIHS president David Harkey said. Even AAA’s survey notes that brighter headlights have been attributed to a reduction of pedestrian impacts thanks to automatic emergency braking systems.

Glare Reduction Is Still Important in Headlight Safety Testing

“But that doesn’t mean reducing glare isn’t an important goal,” Harkey also noted. “[It’s] one that we’ve long focused on at IIHS in addition to improving illumination.”

Since 2016, the IIHS has evaluated headlights as part of its safety rankings, and part of that testing includes glare grading on the same good to poor scale as its crash test results. Its most recent testing said that 51 percent of 2025 new vehicle headlights received a “Good” rating while 16 percent were rated between marginal and poor. While that doesn’t sound great, it is a stark improvement from the inaugural test several years ago in which only one vehicle (the 2016 Toyota Prius V with LED headlights and high-beam assist) received a good rating out of the 80 cars that were tested.

U.S. Headlight Standards Continue to Lag

A problem in the U.S. is that the country continues to fall behind when it comes to headlight standards and technology. The 2021 Infrastructure Act required NHTSA to begin updating its headlight standards, but not much has been done since then. The rest of the world can enjoy true adaptive driving-beam headlights, but we only get high-beam assist, automatic headlight leveling, and curve-adaptive lighting. Although this might not reduce all issues with glare at night, improved headlight technology for U.S. vehicles would go a long way toward further improving nighttime driving safety.

For now, there isn’t much you can do to reduce glare from oncoming traffic and your mirrors. At best, you can try not to look directly at oncoming headlights to help maintain some form of visibility. Otherwise, you’ll have to hope your fellow drivers maintain their headlights by doing things such as cleaning, performing restoration from oxidation, using original bulb types (like replacing halogens with halogens instead of using LED replacements, which is illegal), and keeping their headlights’ position in their cars aimed correctly via maintenance if they drift out of spec.