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Vehicle: Car: Headlights: Height
High beam attitude readjustment device   (+4, -3)  [vote for, against]
Gently remind them that their high beams are on

Upon sensing a vehicle with high beams on in your proximity, the device aims a mirror mounted in the front and/or rear to reflect the offending photons back into the offending drivers face.

Update 08/03/01: I've tested this twice by manually reorienting my rear-view mirror. In both cases the driver took the hint and dimmed their lights!
-- phoenix, Jul 27 2001

Enhanced Brake Lights 2 http://www.halfbake...0Brake_20Lights_202
What Steve remembers. bristolz and I think alike. [centauri, Jul 27 2001, last modified Oct 05 2004]

...or just stick a mirror on the front of your car so their lights get reflected back whatever - only it hurts if they've still got their headlights set on 'blind'.

Weren't you going back to bed?
-- st3f, Jul 27 2001


I guess you could stick a camera out the front of the car, and watch on a screen inside the car. You could have multiple angles, including blindspots. Anyway, the point is, the screen wouldnt blind you - it would adjust to optimum brightness/contrast. Perhaps a tad expensive though!
-- Pallex, Jul 27 2001


The problem with the corner cube array is that it will reflect the offending light back, well, exactly to the offending headlights, not to the driver wielding the headlights, who may not even notice. Beyond that, the corner cube array generally has a working distance (usually only a few feet) that would hamper its vengeful utility.
-- bristolz, Jul 27 2001


[bristolz] has it. I want the other driver to feel my pain.

[st3f] Zzzzzz...
-- phoenix, Jul 27 2001


How about an automatic headlight orientation and intensity control system? An array of photo-sensors on the car detect the light intensity and orientation from the oncoming headlights, and once a pre-defined annoyance threshold has been met, they dynamically adjust your headlights in orientation and intensity to match theirs.
-- perossa, Jul 27 2001


Passenger with a hand held mirror does wonders.
-- thumbwax, Jul 27 2001


Hand-held spotlights work pretty good I'm told...
-- StarChaser, Jul 28 2001


If a driver isn't capable of noticing that his/her headlights are on full beam, then he/she shouldn't be driving.

A pair of air-horns and a front-facing strobe light on the dashboard work well for me.
-- Mayfly, Aug 03 2001


[thumbwax] One doesn't always have a passenger.

[Mayfly] I agree, but Phoenix's Official Driving Competency Test hasn't been approved by all municipalities (yet). Until it is, we have to put up with idiots.

[waugsqueke] The offending drivers are not always approaching from the front and I haven't gotten around to mounting a pair on the rear of my car...
-- phoenix, Aug 03 2001


No offense, but if you are being blinded by the oncomming lights is it really a um bright idea (pun intended) to blind the other driver as well? Personally I like Edmund Land's (found of polaroid) idea of polarizing the windsheilds and the headlights so that glare isn't a problem. But..on to your idea:

I think it would be easier to set up a sensor which detects that the intensity of the light is too high and simply flashed your lights briefly at the offending car. Wouldn't that be simpler than targting a mirror? As for drivers from the rear....auto-dimming mirrors are awesome. They let the other guy see, and prevent him from blinding you
-- LymanSS, Nov 21 2003


[LymanSS] Such a system already exists- it's me. I habitually flash my lights at oncoming vehicles with their head lights on... or no lights at all, they don't always get the hint.
-- squigbobble, May 17 2005



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