Headlights seem a lot brighter these days – because they are

> He said Adaptive Driving Beam (ADB) or glare-free high beams — a system that automatically dims a person's headlights when other vehicles are nearby — is common in Europe and other parts of the world, and has been for 15 years or so. That's not so in the U.S. or Canada.

Not sure if it's the same thing, but automatic high beams are a big problem in the US. In locations where there are lots of hills and curves, you are almost always briefly blinded by high beams for a second before your vehicle falls into detection rage. I'm not entirely sure why they exist either; rarely do I find roads are dark enough to require them.

I've also noticed when taking an Uber or Lyft that many drivers just turn their high beams on all the time. I once asked why my driver had them turned on, and the driver responded that he can't see without them. I feel like this is something that should be caught by a regular driving test and eye exam, but that's wishful thinking.

I feel like I'm overly sensitive because I have an astigmatism, but the bright headlights have become dangerous and unbearable.

Ignorant question: Is the narrower bandwidth of light from LEDs a factor? (I don't really know much about light and optics and the human vision system, but I know in the audio world that pure sine waves can cause hearing damage at lower amplitudes than wider-bandwidth sound, and they can certainly sound more "piercing".)

This article refers to the LED light as "too bright, too blue, and too concentrated"--"too bright" and "too blue" are pretty clear, but "too concentrated" doesn't seem immediately clear to me--too concentrated spatially, I think it implied?, or too concentrated in discrete wavelengths?