Headlight visibility issue

Seems to me that just about all modern headlights suffer from this problem. They're super bright, but have a rather sharp vertical "cutoff." Above that LINE, ya can't see much.

GOOD AND BAD
This is good because newer headlights are so bright, we'd be literally blinded by oncoming traffic w/o this vertical cutoff point. But it's bad because of situations like the one you describe. Welcome to the new "normal."
Guess the only thing ya can do in situations like that is try to hit your brights for a moment?

Yeah. If only they had installed the adaptive headlights. My old GTI, and my wife’s Crosstrek have them. The headlights that follow the steering are great for these situations. Hyundai went with fixed position lights that work well in a straight flat line.

I find they are lacking on wet roads too. Absent reflective center lines and reflectors, it can be tough to see road at night in the rain.

Cost trade offs….

I talked about this earlier also. The low location of the headlights does reduce the fog light requirements, BUT.....
The Tucson does change the headlight dynamics. The plus with my other vehicles is having driving/fog lights that can also be used. With them, they give additional side lighting for turning. The other change from the Tucson is the higher location of the lights give better 'reach' before the cutoff occurs.

The title of this thread is "headlight visibility issue. Here's a thought... I have a serious headlight visibility issue when I'm out driving my Tucson. And it has nothing to do with MY car. Seems like maybe 40 percent of the oncoming cars have headlights that are just WAY TOO BRIGHT.

To expand on the 'reach' I mentioned. I checked and found that this alignment doesn't apply to all vehicles, due to the advances in headlight cutoff technology. The required headlight 'drop' are now for headlights installed more than 36" above the ground. That requirement is generally the center focus have a 2" drop per 25'.
The vehicles that have their headlights installed lower than 36" do not have any drop. I would assume this is due to the oncoming vehicle's driver eye height always being above the cut-off.

Indiana_Johns said:

To expand on the 'reach' I mentioned. I checked and found that this alignment doesn't apply to all vehicles, due to the advances in headlight cutoff technology. The required headlight 'drop' are now for headlights installed more than 36" above the ground. That requirement is generally the center focus have a 2" drop per 25'.
The vehicles that have their headlights installed lower than 36" do not have any drop. I would assume this is due to the oncoming vehicle's driver eye height always being above the cut-off.

Click to expand...

"I would assume this is due to the oncoming vehicle's driver eye height always being above the cut-off."

And thus that would mean that area is still not lighted.

Yes.
Real world example. My F-150's headlights are at 42" and my Tucson is at 24". With the 2" drop at 25' the center of the beam for the F-150 the illumination would equals the Tucson at 225' in front of the vehicles. So anything closer than 225' would be illuminated higher with the F-150. So during turns and signs along the roadway have more lighting than the Tucson.

Granted this example is more extreme than typical SUV to SUV but I would say most vehicle headlights are at least 40%-50% higher than the Tucson's.