Yellow Eyes
I’m not talking about having jaundice here but jaune voir.
You may have noticed recently that car headlights have got brighter. Also more dazzling but not in a wow kind of good-way. Headlight tech has accelerated at the speed of light over the past 5 years. Adaptive lights really are a marvel. And these are quick to respond to changes or detect a car in front. Having driven cars with this feature, I am yet to find it fail. However, it will. Modern tech in cars isn’t, as we have seen, without fault or 100% reliable. Take a look at self levelling projector lamps. The motors fail in those units. Some people being more lemon-aid money in a champagne lifestyle simply don’t want to pay the hundreds to have them fixed.
And then there are those retro fitted HID kits. Made all the more appalling when fitted to cars that were never designed for them. A few years back there was talk of these retro kits becoming an MOT failure. Unfortunately they were not.
But this is all stuff that you, the motorist driving towards these cannot do anything about but shout expletives and hold on for dear life that you don’t crash after being blinded.
Recently, I have been having trouble on my nighttime commute home. Long shifts under strip lighting and dark days surprisingly take their toll on your eyes. Having seen Luden Automotive @LUDENClassics on Twitter, and the replies from his followers commenting, I took it upon myself to investigate these yellow night vision glasses.
A Greengrocer Won’t Help
There is help out there. I’m afraid to say that eating carrots alone won’t help. They contain beta-carotene. The body converts this into vitamin A but you still need the C and E to help maintain healthy eyes. Regular eye tests can also help in making sure you have the right prescription for your eyes and detecting any faults that you can’t see.
Four Eyes Only
Being a spectacle wearer, I shouldn’t suffer from this. My prescription glasses are not cheap. Along with the list of options I tick, I’ve always opted for anti-glare and yet I struggle to see the benefits of this on my prescription. Maybe I should look more into this next time. But glasses I need for being short-sighted and I can’t drive without them.
You can find yellow driving glasses everywhere. They even sell them in petrol stations. For us 4 eyed souls we are somewhat forgotten about or so I thought. I wasn’t prepared to buy yet another pair of glasses with a yellow tint.
Amazon it would seem, is the place to go. They offer a plethora of clip-on lenses and these are effective in staying in place. They also offer over glasses too. So I opted to try both these and the clip on for comparison. I also had a go at making my own pair with a set of Lucas yellow headlight covers from the 70’s. These failed and so too did using Quality Street wrappers. So don’t use them. Also remember that chocolate doesn’t contain bete-carotene so it won’t help your eyes if you eat a whole box of sweets for those yellow wrappers.
In Practice
I am happy to say they do work and they don’t work. I found them only effective at night. In the murky light of the early mornings and evenings, they were not as good as they were when it was dark. Even at night in street light areas, they were better than in those murky conditions. So believe the hype of even the most dubious internet seller and the stuff they spout out.
I found that for the most part, cars that came towards me with full beam on didn’t blind or startle me as they would without the lenses. It gets better too. These take you right back to France before 1996 when selective yellow lights were no longer required by law. So if you like your French cars and yellow lights, these will make you feel right at home.
There is however a strange thing about them. They can’t yellow LED lights. I’m not sure about the science there but they still shine white through the yellow lenses. What does happen however is the lenses manage to soften the harsh glare. And you may run into problems if your car has auto dipping door mirrors like I did when driving a Genesis G70 recently.
Conclusion
For the most part, they work well. There are still times when I was dazzled but the number of times this happened was greatly reduced. My eyes were able to adapt quickly to the changes and you soon sort of forget you have them on. What you may find is the typical thing of seeing if they really do work for you by looking directly at headlights to see if you’re blinded. Sort of like testing super glue or a weld, forcing it until it breaks and then going “well that didn’t work” but I can say these do and for £5.29 for clip-ons and £18.99 for the over glasses, to me they are well worth keeping in the Birdy Fleet of Broken Dreams.
Useful links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_yellow
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headlamp