Congress passed the Motor Vehicle Safety Act in 1966. This was the first U.S. law to require automakers to make their vehicles safe. The Highway Safety Act of 1970 created the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. This law tasks NHTSA with protecting the public from unsafe vehicles. NHTSA has established federal motor vehicle safety standards. FMVSS Section 108 is titled Lamps, Reflective Devices, and Associated Equipment and contains the requirements for vehicle headlamps, tail lights, daytime running lights, and other external lamps on a vehicle.
The Administrative Procedure Act of 1946, codified as 5 U.S.C. 551-559, details the procedures for federal rulemaking. The automakers have previously complied with this statute for vehicle lighting. For example, the automakers petitioned NHTSA to be allowed to use rectangular headlights, replaceable bulbs, and Adaptive Driving Beam. However we can find no record of the automakers submitting a petition to NHTSA for authorization to use LED technology for headlights, taillights, brake lights, or Daytime Running Lights. The Soft Lights Foundation submitted a Request for Interpretation to NHTSA on September 27, 2023 requesting to know if NHTSA agrees that the automakers are required to petition NHTSA for authorization to manufacture vehicles with LED headlights.
Due to the fact that no automaker submitted a petition to NHTSA for authorization to use LED technology, NHTSA did not publish a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, and NHTSA has made no proposals to regulate the light intensity or blue wavelength light to match the requirements of LED technology. NHTSA has made no studies of the glare caused by LED headlights. The Soft Lights Foundation submitted a petition to NHTSA on February 24, 2024 to set an overall limit on intensity for headlights. NHTSA has not acted on this petition.
The 1938 Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and the 1968 Radiation Control for Health and Safety Act, codified as 21 U.S.C. 360hh – 360ss, direct the Food and Drug Administration to regulate electromagnetic radiation from electronic products, including visible light. The FDA is required to publish performance standards for Light Emitting Diode products, including LED vehicle headlights, LED taillights, LED brake lights, and LED Daytime Running Lights. All federal agencies have deferred to the FDA for the publication of performance standards, stating that their agency has no Congressional authority to publish performance standards for LED products. Given this position by all federal agencies that they have no authority to regulate LED products, NHTSA has no authority to regulate LED headlights. NHTSA FMVSS-108 is not applicable to LED headlights because only the FDA has Congressional authority to publish LED headlight requirements and no automaker has petitioned with the FDA or NHTSA for authorization to sell vehicles with LED headlight technology. 21 U.S.C. 360ii directs the FDA to collaborate with NHTSA to develop these standards, but the FDA has failed to do so.
Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966
Prior to 1966 in the USA, there were no vehicle safety regulations, and deaths from vehicle accidents were increasing dramatically. Ralph Nader led the effort to have Congress pass legislation prohibiting the auto makers from designing vehicles that put the public at risk of injury or death. Congress passed the Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966. This law is codified as 49 U.S.C. Chapter 301.
49 U.S.C. Section 30111 states: “(a)General Requirements.— The Secretary of Transportation shall prescribe motor vehicle safety standards. Each standard shall be practicable, meet the need for motor vehicle safety, and be stated in objective terms”, where ‘motor vehicle safety’ means the performance of a motor vehicle or motor vehicle equipment in a way that protects the public against unreasonable risk of accidents occurring because of the design, construction, or performance of a motor vehicle, and against unreasonable risk of death or injury in an accident, and includes nonoperational safety of a motor vehicle.“
It appears that the auto industry relied on a Letter of Interpretation from NHTSA in 2005 to begin manufacturing their vehicles with LED headlights. In this letter, NHTSA switches its position that each LED chip is a single light source, to the idea that an array of LEDs forms a single light source if they are wired in series. The auto industry interpreted these legal gymnastics as authorization to sell vehicles with LED headlights. The problem for the auto industry and for public health and safety is that the auto industry was not transparent and did not notify NHTSA of the change in physics characteristics of switching to a flat surface emitter from traditional light sources. The automakers have previously complied with the Administrative Procedure Act by petitioning NHTSA for authorization to change headlight technology, such as when the auto industry started using rectangular headlights. This reliance on a single Letter of Interpretation from NHTSA that uses phrases such as “we believe” does not make for a strong legal case for the auto industry’s switch to LED headlights.
We were informed that the auto industry uses 6500K CCT for to meet their own internal durability specifications. If this is true, then the auto industry has chosen 6500K CCT, which is a known photobiological hazard and which causes extreme disability glare, to favor protecting the vehicle parts over protecting public health and safety.
NHTSA publishes the performance standards for vehicle lighting systems in FMVSS-108. Table XIX-a contains the minimum and maximum low-beam brightness values in candela. LB2V is the column for modern vehicles. Notice that there are only a few test points where limits are set, and that these test points are not directly in front of the vehicle. It has been explained to us that the previous LB1M and LB1V limits at the H,V test point of 5,000 candela was for manually aligned headlights, and that LB2M and LB2V are for automatically leveled headlights. However, LED chips emit incredibly intense light and yet there is no limit for this intensity for most test points in front of the vehicle.
Glare Examples
The photo below shows tungsten filament headlights on the left and LED headlights on the right. The LED headlights are excessively intense and have extreme levels of blue wavelength light.
The video below demonstrates the eye-damaging blue-rich light and blinding glare from LED headlights. The author asks, “Why are these still legal?” The answer is that LED headlights never have been legal. As we can see in the video, LED headlights are hazardous, dangerous, and discriminatory, and they have never been approved by the U.S. government.
Pedestrian Deaths at Night
A GHSA report shows that pedestrian deaths at night have nearly doubled since 2010, directly coinciding with the release of LED lighting for vehicle headlights, street lights, and floodlights. This dramatic increase in deaths at night does not match the increase in deaths during the day.
Petition
Over 60,000 people have signed a petition demanding that the government eliminate the LED blinding headlights. Here is a spreadsheet with the thousands of comments from the petition.
Aftermarket LED Headlights
NHTSA requires that any LED headlight lamp designed and sold by a third party for replacement of the Original Equipment Manufacturer headlight be approved by NHTSA. LeRoy Angeles, Senior Compliance Engineer at NHTSA, wrote a letter in 2021 explaining that not a single aftermarket LED bulb has ever been approved by NHTSA. This means that every single aftermarket LED replacement bulb on the road is illegal, and yet no government agency is doing anything about it.
There was a time when NHTSA actually enforced their own regulations. This 2004 NHTSA decision affirms that aftermarket headlights must conform to NHTSA regulations. No LED aftermarket replacement bulbs conform to NHTSA regulations, but NHTSA has stopped taking any enforcement actions.
Adaptive Driving Beam
A citizen researcher has published information about ADB here. Adaptive Driving Beam is designed to increase the use of high-beams, and will only switch to low-beams when the ADB system detects an object. This is a fundamental social shift, away from humans making a decision to use low beams most of the time, to a computer making the decision to use high beams most of the time. ADB is not designed to reduce the glare from low-beam headlights. Since LED low-beam headlights are already too intense and too blue, ADB will not solve the problem of disability glare from LED headlights.
Headlightgate!
On April 8, 2024, the automotive experts on the Carmudgeon Show exposed “Headlightgate”. The hosts of this show have uncovered how auto engineers have purposely turned off tiny areas of the LED headlight so that the headlight system can pass the inspection tests, while remaining blindingly bright everywhere else. This cheating scandal exactly parallels the Volkswagen Dieselgate scandal which resulted in a $25 Billion payout by Volkswagen.
Here is a link to the Carmudgeon Show Headlightgate episode (warning: profanity).
European Efforts to Regulate LED Headlights
On May 1, 2024, the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile submitted a file to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe on headlight glare as the following two documents:
GRE-90-20 – (FIA) Glare on Road Traffic: European consumer study 2024
GRE-90-40 – (FIA) European survey on glare in road traffic
These documents contain surveys of a very large number of individuals in Europe:
▪ 80 % of the respondents find the glare intolerable or annoying
▪ 50 % almost always or regularly feel dazzled
▪ 52 % of respondents pinch their eyes shut or even close them briefly
▪ 64 % have problems perceiving objects in the vicinity of the dazzling light source
▪ 25 % stated that they continued to see an image of the light source for a limited time after passing it (afterimage), or even felt pain
Timeline
November 23, 2016 – Change.org petition Ban Blinding Headlights created.
December 2, 2019 – Change.org petition reaches 10,000 signatures.
March 24, 2020 – NHTSA sends form letter falsely stating that NHTSA is sponsoring research.
August 20, 2020 – NHTSA acknowledges that replacement kits using LED bulbs are not legal. Letter from LeRoy Angeles.
October 9, 2020 – Soft Lights Foundation initiates collaboration with Congressman Peter DeFazio and staff member Brittany Lundberg.
April 6, 2021 – Soft Lights Foundation meets with NHTSA engineers via video conference.
June 5, 2021 – New York Times publishes article about blinding headlights.
June 20, 2021 – House of Representatives passes HR 3684 with Soft Lights Foundation legislative text sponsored by Congressman Peter DeFazio to study LED headlights.
June 24, 2021 – Acting NHTSA Director Steven Cliff rejects our request to meet, stating that he is busy with other priorities.
June 27, 2021 – Soft Lights Foundation sends letter to Ann Carlson, Chief Legal Counsel, NHTSA.
October 31, 2021 – Soft Lights Foundation sends second letter to Ann Carlson.
November 2, 2021 – Change.org petition reaches 25,000 signatures.
November 2, 2021 – Ann Carlson, Chief Legal Counsel, NHTSA, acknowledges receipt of Soft Lights Foundation letters.
November 15, 2021 – HR 3684 becomes law and directs NHTSA to update FMVSS-108 to allow Adaptive Driving Beam headlights, but the LED headlight study was removed.
November 23, 2021 – Motortrend.com confirms that LED headlights are illegal.
January 18, 2022 – NTSB demands that NHTSA stop falsely claiming that 94% of all accidents are due to operator error.
January 27, 2022 – US DOT releases National Roadway Strategy with no mention of LED headlights.
February 1, 2022 – NHTSA approves Adaptive Driving Beam
February 22, 2022 – NHTSA publishes ADB final rule in the Federal Register.
February 27, 2022 – Soft Lights Foundation sends letter to Ford to notifying them that LED headlights are dangerous and illegal.
February 28, 2022 – Letter to General Motors.
August 5, 2022 – The Soft Lights Foundation submitted a formal petition to NHTSA to issue an order of non-compliance to Ford for non-compliant LED headlights. In this petition, we lay out the case for why LED headlights are non-compliant and dangerous, and how Ford failed to request and receive regulatory approval to use LED headlights. Petition.
August 11, 2022 – Petition for non-compliance for Tesla Model 3. Petition
September 9, 2022 – Petition for non-compliance for Rivian RT1. Petition
September 30, 2022 – NHTSA Responded that they have received our three petitions and assigned case numbers NHTSA-220815-006, 220818-001, and 220919-008. Letter.
November 15, 2022 – Senator Markey and 9 other Senators wrote to NHTSA asking for a status update on safety regulations, including headlights. We wrote to Senator Markey about non-compliant LED headlights. Letter.
December 2, 2022 – NHTSA Rejected our petitions to issue orders of non-compliance. – Letter.
December 5, 2022 – We filed a request for an investigation into Ford’s use of non-compliant LED headlights with the US Department of Transportation, Office of Inspector General. Complaint.
December 8, 2022 – NHTSA published their denial of our petitions to recall several vehicles in the Federal Register.
December 10, 2022 – We submitted a petition to NHTSA to require that all vehicle lamps emit spatially uniform visible radiation that follows an inverse square law for dispersion. Petition.
March 10, 2023 – NHTSA sent letter acknowledging our petition to require that all lamps emit spatially uniform visible radiation.
May 29, 2023 – We submitted a petition to NHTSA to comply with 21 USC Section 360ii to collaborate with the FDA to publish performance standards for LED visible radiation on vehicles.
August 20, 2023 – We filed a complaint with the Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General.
August 22, 2023 – The DOT OIG rejected our complaint.
September 23, 2023 – We submitted a formal request to NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation to investigate the auto industry’s switch to LED headlights.
September 27, 2023 – We submitted a Request for Interpretation to NHTSA regarding the requirement that the automakers comply with the Administrative Procedure Act and petition NHTSA for authorization to use LED headlights in their vehicles.
December 25, 2023 – We submitted a federal regulatory petition to NHTSA describing the automaker’s failure to comply with 5 U.S.C. 551-559 and NHTSA’s failure to update FMVSS-108 for LED headlights. We requested that NHTSA issue a notice of non-compliance to Stellantis for the 2023 Jeep Grand Wagoneer.
December 26, 2023 – Sophie Shulman becomes Acting Director of NHTSA.
February 13, 2024 – Response letter from NHTSA to our 2021 letters about blinding LED headlights. NHTSA states that aftermarket LED bulbs are illegal, but that there is no enforcement. NHTSA states that the FDA is responsible for protecting our eyes. NHTSA states that maximum limits on intensity are only for certain test points.
March 1, 2024– We submitted a federal regulatory petition to NHTSA to set an overall limit on lower beam headlight intensity.
May 1, 2024 – The Federation Internationale de l’Automobile submitted a file to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe on headlight glare as the following two documents:
GRE-90-20 – (FIA) Glare on Road Traffic: European consumer study 2024
GRE-90-40 – (FIA) European survey on glare in road traffic