No need for headlights if there are streetlights?

[Gareth]

By the same principle, I presume most people dim their dashclock/speedo etc right down at night time? Otherwise you're over illuminating the foreground at the expense of that behind it.

Related - some newish cars come with very bright / not dimmable instrument lighting.

It beggars belief that car designers can unlearn such fundamentals from one model to the next.

[jont]

By the same principle, I presume most people dim their dashclock/speedo etc right down at night time? Otherwise you're over illuminating the foreground at the expense of that behind it.

Related - some newish cars come with very bright / not dimmable instrument lighting.

It beggars belief that car designers can unlearn such fundamentals from one model to the next.

<nods> and don't get me started on manufacturers who put a bloody great LCD display in the middle of the car with no way of turning the screen off

[GJD]

Better vision in the middle and far distance on sidelights compared to dipped headlights? Are you sure?

Yes, dipped just illuminates very brightly the near distance giving a massive contrast between near and middle distance brightness. Try it next time on a street lighted motorway/a-road, particularly mid evening time.

Ah. In a different part of the post I responded to, you mentioned "approaching an unlit bend, (typically country b-roads and similar)" and that's what I had in mind when considering your sidelights vs dipped lights comment. A street lighted major road is obviously very different. I was on a lit section of the A1 early yesterday morning (just before 7am) and I tried this briefly, but I think there was already too much daylight by that time for the point you're making as I found the difference almost imperceptible. The only difference I could see with dipped lights was the reflection of the cats eyes and a road sign or two - certainly no issue of the near distance brightness affecting my far distance vision. Perhaps I'll try when I find myself on a similar road at a darker time of day.

I presume most people dim their dashclock/speedo etc right down at night time? Otherwise you're over illuminating the foreground at the expense of that behind it.

I don't find I ever need to adjust mine. I've just set it to a brightness that works for me at night and left it there.