Seeing the light

Anyone who drives Baton Rouge after dark knows the feeling: a car in the oncoming lane—sedan, SUV, doesn't matter—washes your windshield in cold white light, and you squint until it passes, saying a silent prayer that nothing crosses your path until some semblance of vision is restored.

Rivian says it has a fix. The automaker's "adaptive driving beam" headlights—now standard on its new R2 SUV—use cameras and 35 individually controlled LEDs per headlight to spot oncoming cars and dim only the beams aimed at them, leaving the rest of the road lit at full brightness. One Axios journalist drove the R2 through Wisconsin's Door Peninsula at night and came away, in her words, "truly wowed."

The tech's been standard in Europe for a decade. Outdated U.S. regulations kept it off American roads until 2022, and Rivian and Tesla remain the only automakers offering it here. Audi and BMW say versions are coming.

Until then, Baton Rouge drivers keep squinting, flipping down the visor, and hoping the next set of headlights isn't quite so bright.