The good news is that its now legal for the US to have LED Matrix headlights. The new Model 3 has this (among others). You get the brightness of the headlights but it blocks only the area where oncoming cars can see it.
Also, for what you said to make sense you have to do better than speculating that brighter headlights allowing people to see further is outweighed by them causing glare for oncoming drivers. It's entirely possible this is a good safety tradeoff.
Still, from a very cursory bit of reading it seems that these are designed to detect other vehicle headlights only. How about pedestrians and cyclists (or even motorcyclists)? I'm really not convinced that these sorts of technical solutions are the best way to address the problem (in the same way that forward and reverse cameras - while helpful - aren't a proper solution to good old fashioned line of sight).
The only way to block line of sight is to erect a wall in the middle of the road so I'm not sure what you want. Pointing the lights is a tradeoff between seeing in front of you and shining the light on other people who are in front of you.
There's no reason matrix headlights can't block light for any reason, the Teslas and other ADAS systems see bikers and pedestrians so I don't see why that wouldn't be possible.
Tesla's can "see" humans, cyclists, cars, etc, independent of the headlights.
It's possible that this awareness is what's used as input for the matrix headlights. Either entirely, or in coordination with detecting oncoming headlights.
I'm confused about your mention of technical solutions. What would a non-technical solution look like?
Something like ensuring that headlights are lower. I'm not against technical improvements, but I think that simple, less error-prone improvements should be given higher priority.
They don't work. All the time I see what looks like flashing as the "clever" automatic headlight tries to work out if I'm there or not. Countless times I've had someone driving behind and hogging the lane to the right of mine and have their full beams shining through my mirrors. Moving into the same lane in front of them causes their headlights to dip, but I shouldn't have to do this (especially because being in that lane is against the highway code).
It's a whole different ballgame having a pedestrian blinded vs having a driver blinded. I'm not saying it's good for a pedestrian, but we have to consider the inherent risk of that vs t hem not being seen at all because the light gives no opportunity to reflect off of them.
I haven't done a whole lot of research, but this [0] says
> matrix headlights, consist of numerous small LED elements and mirrors that can control a light beam in complex ways. This allows the lights to be more precisely aimed, illuminating what the driver needs to see without blinding other motorists, pedestrians, or cyclists.
I suggest we make headlights be no higher off the ground than 2' and adjusted downwards. If your vehicle is so tall that your lights are under the grill, that's on you. People don't need to be blinded by bright white lights at eye level.
I have used automatic highbeams in a toyota and they don’t work. They will think a sign reflected by the headlights is another car and will cut out. Just what you need to happen when you see that deer warning sign on a dark road…
Also, for what you said to make sense you have to do better than speculating that brighter headlights allowing people to see further is outweighed by them causing glare for oncoming drivers. It's entirely possible this is a good safety tradeoff.