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Comment by rsp1984 | Hacker News Reader

rsp1984

I find this is mostly a problem with SUVs as their lights are naturally higher.

I nearly always get blinded through my rear mirror when an SUV drives behind me at night. I can't imagine I'm the only one with this problem and it's hard to believe that there are no regulations to fix the problem.

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Definitely not the only one. And around here, you also have to deal with the occasional jacked up truck that's even higher. I've thought that there should be a maximum headlight height, pretty design of large vehicles be damned. 18-wheeler designers figured out how to do it without being ugly. If they were designed like trucks and SUVs are, their headlights would probably be above the normal cars' roof line.

Yes, THIS. I often have to hold a hand in front of my rear view mirror to not be blinded at night by SUV headlights.

You know that little nub sticking out the bottom of the mirror? Flick that and your mirror will flip to another angle so the lights are no longer pointing at your face.

Rear view mirrors actually contain 2 mirrors, so when you flick it you get the same image at the same angle, but only with 10% or so of the light actually being reflected towards your eyes.

Is that why I'm getting all these downvotes on the comment above? Dudes and dudettes, that doesn't work on the side mirrors, which also have that effect.

Doesn't work when the high beams are on and tailgating you for going "only" 10 MPH over the speed limit. Also many newer cars are coming out with "auto dimming" mirrors without the switch but that don't quite seem to cut out as much light. The problem isn't just with lights either, it's with a lot of different features including mirrors that can't adequately capture blind spots and bumpers that cause more harm due to mismatched heights. The differences in vehicles sizes overall probably lead to quite a few avoidable traffic fatalities and accidents.

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