IIHS says your pickup's headlights suck
Unless, of course, you enjoy inconsistent lighting and blinding everyone else on the road.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) recently started testing vehicle headlights by segment. This time around, it's testing pickups' peepers, and the results are, frankly, pretty awful.
The IIHS tested 11 different pickup trucks, in both full-size and mid-size segments, and only one truck achieved a "Good" headlight rating -- the 2017 Honda Ridgeline. The 2016-2017 GMC Sierra scored "Acceptable," the 2017 Titan and 2016 Ram 1500 scored "Marginal," and literally every other truck couldn't outpace a "Poor" rating.
Glare was the biggest issue. Out of 23 different headlight combinations available, 14 created excessive glare, which can blind oncoming drivers. That much glare limits a vehicle to a "Marginal" rating, no matter what.
Inadequate visibility also played a part. The "Poor" Chevrolet Colorado's low beams only gave drivers 123 feet of visibility, compared to the "Good" Ridgeline's LED low beams and their 358-foot illumination. The Ford F-150, a staple of the US auto industry, featured poor illumination in both halogen and LED variants.
In future, automakers will need to improve their truck's headlights if they care about IIHS awards. Starting in 2017, the IIHS won't hand out its Top Safety Pick+ accolade to any vehicle scoring "Marginal" or "Poor" on the headlight test, which measures both glare and length of illumination along straights and curves.