...Automotive regulations allow a huge performance range in every exterior vehicle light. As high-tech lighting becomes practical and affordable, ever higher performance is possible. But when regulations are updated (which happens very rarely), it's usually to allow higher performance at the top of the range—to raise the ceiling—and almost never to raise the floor by requiring higher performance at the bottom of the range...
...If headlamps were built with warmer-white LEDs, they'd be giving drivers badly needed extra "seeing" light without increasing painful glare. But auto marketers strongly prefer ever-bluer headlamps, insisting they're closer to natural daylight, which they aren't in any real sense...
...For that matter, one of the world's top vehicle lighting research bodies, the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Lighting Research Center, has shown a clear benefit (fewer crashes) of "headlamps on when wipers are on" laws. With the reduced visibility and increased light scatter caused by rain and snow, low beams are the appropriate front lights, DRLs are inappropriate, and side and rear lighting are crucial....
