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I wouldn't brag about this five years ago, but today we cannot ignore the high-riding, super-bright, LED-equipped trucks and SUVs we are currently driving on the road. Automobile manufacturers need to start manufacturing standard equipment for automatic dimming mirrors. By "mirror" I mean all mirrors. None of this, only the rearview mirror on the driver's side dimmed the nonsense. Because guess what? When you are driving, you have to look at both rearview mirrors and rearview mirrors at the same time, and everything is directed towards your head. It’s crazy I have to say that, but today there are many luxury and non-luxury cars with only a dimming rearview mirror, a single dimming driver side mirror, and an ordinary passenger side mirror.

This night-time blindness crisis (which is a fair description for those of us who drive low-speed cars) has gotten worse in the past few years. Americans are increasingly buying more crossovers, SUVs and trucks-this has not changed. The headlights of these vehicles are often installed at a much higher position than cars, hatchbacks, and coupes, which means that even the low beams can have a serious impact on the shorter car rearview mirrors. Coupled with the advent of better LED light technology (with little progress in mirror technology) and the need to achieve good results in the IIHS headlight safety test, we have the perfect way to blind drivers on the highway.

Anyone who passes a particularly tall truck at night knows what I'm talking about. If there is no automatic dimming rearview mirror, the only way to avoid being dazzled by the taillights is to raise your hand to block the reflection of the rearview mirror. You can try to adjust the angle of the mirror to deflect the light to other places, but this operation is hardly safer than simply blocking your view in that specific area. An ordinary old-fashioned rear-view mirror (the one inside) has at least an old switch that can tilt the mirror to the quasi-dim headlights, but the rear-view mirror is far worse than the unit you can get with electronic automatic dimming. After all, these exist for a reason: they are better. 

What we are encountering here is... the problems we ourselves have brought to us. We obviously want the best and brightest headlights to illuminate the road ahead at night, which is one of the reasons why IIHS added the performance of headlights to the list of criteria it tested when it awarded the top safety choice award. Automakers know that car buyers like to be able to see further, but they also like to be able to say that their car has won a safety award. I do not blame IIHS for causing blindness to other drivers, but insurance agencies must be partly responsible for the development of brighter headlights by automakers, which can project farther than the headlights of the past few years.

The problem here is looking directly (or blinding) our eyes. When the car passes by your left or right side, it is not good for you to see nothing. but! We happen to have invented the technology to save us from blindness. They are called auto-dimming mirrors, and in most cases, they work like a charm.

If you are curious, automatic dimming mirrors work through a process called electrochromism. When the sensor detects the light from the headlight behind you, it will send out a signal that triggers the electrochromic gel in the mirror to react and darken the originally transparent gel. Once the gel darkens (which always takes a second), those super bright headlights lose all the tingling sensation because they have "auto-dimmer".

Considering how this technology exists and can help us stay safe on highways, it should become standard equipment for more (or all) cars. Just as new cars in the automotive industry now generally use automatic emergency braking, I hope to see automatic dimming rearview mirrors can do the same. Volvo has kept up with the trend. All of its cars are equipped with automatic dimming mirrors as standard, because the Swedish company, known for its safety, considers this a safety feature. In this regard, I completely agree with Volvo's point of view. Not only is Volvo's philosophy correct, but Volvo also implements it. The side mirrors-not just the driver's side-are dimmed, because of course they should. The number of times I was blinded by just passing a semi-truck or a particularly high SUV at night is too high. The level of blindness/annoyance on the passenger side is not as severe as on the driver’s side, but it is still sufficient to ensure that the automatic dimming mirror is placed there.

Cost is a reason to oppose the installation of automatic dimming mirrors in everything. They are more expensive than ordinary mirrors, but you can also say that this is a simplification of the manufacturer's design and production process. Instead of providing two different mirrors, it is better to provide only one auto-dimming mirror and forget to develop the other one. Europe and Asia are using camera side mirrors, which can also solve the problem in theory, but these are totally worthy of a completely different discussion.

Even if it does lead to a slight increase in the basic price of the car, I think the safety and peace of mind is worth it. The car has driven such a long distance in a few seconds-which is one of the reasons why it is dangerous to look down at your phone on the road-so any time to be blinded by the dazzling headlights is too much. Give us a good mirror.

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