Glare Free Headlights - Use Case

[HornetRaider]

Hi everyone. First time poster and long time lurker. Thank you for all of the information and tips. I've lurked on this forum and reddit for close to 2 years and bought my 2023 Lariat 511a sight unseen without test driving based on feedback and you all were right. I came from a heavily modded cts v (built motor, heads, cam) as a daily driver to this and it has been a welcomed change.

Last night I enabled glare free headlights through Forscan. I was wondering what the use case is for this feature. Is this better suited for folks out in rural areas with dimly lit roads? I'm wondering if city drivers like myself benefit more from auto high beams vs glare free. I have to admit I am not really noticing any difference. In fact, it's less useful (so far) than the auto high beams were in my neighborhood. Those would kick on and illuminate the whole street if it was empty. Now that feature doesn't happen. I also noticed that the high beam blue icon would come on for auto high beam. With glare free, I have the green "A" in the dash and the feature enabled in vehicle settings, but I have not been able to tell a difference so far.

Nice to be here and look forward to learning more.

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[Athrun88]

Welcome to the community!

Glare free is being able to selectively luminate the road with your high beams without blinding oncoming traffic. Benefit is that the system will keep your high beams on, giving you better overall visibility, while not bothering any oncoming vehicles. I would say it is more benefit for rural drivers than urban since there are little to no street lights. For glare free to activate, I believe you have to be travelling above a certain speed and below a certain light level.

I do most of my driving in rural areas and I enjoy glare free as it'll keep my side of the road lit up but dim the oncoming lane if a vehicle is detected.

 

[Runaway Tractor]

Rural use is fabulous. The truck has really good bright lights with a really great beam spread. The glare free mode lets all that awesome light stay on lighting up the surrounding without blinding the vehicle ahead of me.

Yes in a city environment with street lights and building lights, it is basically useless since it locks to low beam. You can override it to manual if you want in that circumstance though.

 

[kstype]

@Ford Motor Company - do we know if the matrix headlight functions will ever be toggled via SYNC infotainment or will it only be a Forscan hack or dealer activated feature?

 

[Runaway Tractor]

@Ford Motor Company - do we know if the matrix headlight functions will ever be toggled via SYNC infotainment or will it only be a Forscan hack or dealer activated feature?

It is toggled via sync screen once you enable the feature in forscan. It is not enabled in the US because it does not meet current DOT requirements. It is enabled from the factory in Canada and Europe since it meets their standards already. So in short, no it is never going to be enabled for us in the USA unless DOT changes their standards.

 

[rugedraw]

Hi everyone. First time poster and long time lurker. Thank you for all of the information and tips. I've lurked on this forum and reddit for close to 2 years and bought my 2023 Lariat 511a sight unseen without test driving based on feedback and you all were right. I came from a heavily modded cts v (built motor, heads, cam) as a daily driver to this and it has been a welcomed change.

Last night I enabled glare free headlights through Forscan. I was wondering what the use case is for this feature. Is this better suited for folks out in rural areas with dimly lit roads? I'm wondering if city drivers like myself benefit more from auto high beams vs glare free. I have to admit I am not really noticing any difference. In fact, it's less useful (so far) than the auto high beams were in my neighborhood. Those would kick on and illuminate the whole street if it was empty. Now that feature doesn't happen. I also noticed that the high beam blue icon would come on for auto high beam. With glare free, I have the green "A" in the dash and the feature enabled in vehicle settings, but I have not been able to tell a difference so far.

Nice to be here and look forward to learning more.

Living in urban Miami, I rarely get to see glare-free in action, so if you do live and drive in an urban area with lots of street lighting, the same will apply to you.

Does glare free work on 2023 Lightnings? I know on the ICE trucks, it only works on 2021-2022 model years after a certain IPMA update.

 

[jbassett]

Does glare free work on 2023 Lightnings?

It works on my 23 Lariat SR after enabling via FORScan.

 

[21st Century Truck]

I live in pretty fully built-out Arlington County, Virginia and I do see my glare-free headlights at work in our urban area. They are speed-dependent of course so often, the truck speed is too low to turn the feature on... however, my glare-free headlights do work here as well. It's just harder to see... I definitely see the difference in sweeping on- and off-ramps, for example, and in occasional light industrial curved roads on the NE side of the Washington DC urban area.

At low speeds they of course default to low beams, in any area rural or urban.

They are fantastic, whether in urban or rural areas, in illuminating that bicyclist or pedestrian or scooter rider in their dark clothes on the side of a road... or the deer on the sides when I'm up in the Appalachians on the West Virginia border.

I would not go back now.

 

[Runaway Tractor]

Even on the interstate they are great. Lights up the shoulder and woods without lighting up traffic.

 

[luebri]

I only got mine turned on a few weeks ago, but was motivated by the fear of deer. The Rut (Deer mating season) causes a ton a car accidents in my Exurb / Rural area of Wisconsin. You basically just drive down the road looking at the ditches on both sides of the road looking for deer ready to pop out & not the actual road.

Prior to having this on and just the Auto Dim the presence of an oncoming vehicle results in being virtually blind to the sides of the road.

The improvement with the glare free is simply amazing. Oncoming vehicle comes and nothing happens, each side of the road remains completely lit up and visible. My confidence driving at night and seeing a deer ahead of time is dramatically improved.

 

[carys98]

Double check that you don’t have any DTCs. It sounds like it may not be working if your experience is worse with Glare Free. I had a checksum error that kept mine from working initially and once I corrected it they are amazing.

 

[Firn]

I only got mine turned on a few weeks ago, but was motivated by the fear of deer. The Rut (Deer mating season) causes a ton a car accidents in my Exurb / Rural area of Wisconsin. You basically just drive down the road looking at the ditches on both sides of the road looking for deer ready to pop out & not the actual road.

Prior to having this on and just the Auto Dim the presence of an oncoming vehicle results in being virtually blind to the sides of the road.

The improvement with the glare free is simply amazing. Oncoming vehicle comes and nothing happens, each side of the road remains completely lit up and visible. My confidence driving at night and seeing a deer ahead of time is dramatically improved.

This!

Driving 53 across Wisconson at 11pm was what convinced me. Have one car in front of you and you cant use the high beams, with this i wasnt blinding the car for the 20 miles it took to pass them, yet had the ditches fully illuminated.

Pretty sure I had a car follow me for 45 minutes simply because the lights were so good.

 

[luebri]

This!

Driving 53 across Wisconson at 11pm was what convinced me. Have one car in front of you and you cant use the high beams, with this i wasnt blinding the car for the 20 miles it took to pass them, yet had the ditches fully illuminated.

Pretty sure I had a car follow me for 45 minutes simply because the lights were so good.

Yep works just as good when you are behind someone... I bet the driver in the vehicle we are behind has to be thinking, "why the hell is the side of the road lit up so good! This is awesome!"

 

[Runaway Tractor]

Exactly. Everyone around me safer because of those lights.

 

[Firn]

Yep works just as good when you are behind someone... I bet the driver in the vehicle we are behind has to be thinking, "why the hell is the side of the road lit up so good! This is awesome!"

I have wondered how many people notice it.

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