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.

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