# Blinded for 4 seconds



## Bigriver (Jan 26, 2018)

As I was driving Thursday night, a semi-truck cab (without any trailer) abruptly pulled in front of me and turned on some bright spot light, totally blinding me. I was in the middle lane on a 3-lane highway. I was on auto pilot and the car handled the situation beautifully, but I was totally taken off-guard and could see almost nothing because of the light. I've just now pulled the USB to look at the dash cam footage. The truck pulls in front of me from the right lane, and as he does so, he turns on a very bright rear-facing light for 4 seconds. Then he turns off the light and moves back over to the right lane and zooms off. Thankfully the highway split right after that, and he went the other way.

I'm not smart enough to know how to post a video, but am attaching a still shot from the dash cam video.

I really don't know what to make of it. I'm assuming it was some sort of road rage thing on his part, but there really wasn't anything that happened before this (that I know of, or that I can see from the dash cam video). Can't see any license plate so I don't know that this is anything to be able to report to police.

Has anyone ever seen or heard of anything like this?


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## Midnit3 (Oct 8, 2017)

Did you get the plate number? Very dangerous!


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## webdriverguy (May 25, 2017)

if you wish you can drop the footage in a dropbox account , make the link public and post the link


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## Ed Woodrick (May 26, 2018)

Sounds as if they guy was pulling out on the road, a little distracted, accidentally hit the trailer work lights, realized what had happened, turned them off and finally got focused on driving.


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## JasonF (Oct 26, 2018)

My guess would be they thought you had your high beams on, and they moved over to switch on their rear spotlight and teach you a lesson.


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## webdriverguy (May 25, 2017)

JasonF said:


> My guess would be they thought you had your high beams on, and they moved over to switch on their rear spotlight and teach you a lesson.


Those tesla high beams


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## Bernard (Aug 3, 2017)

Maybe the driver was just curious to see what your car looked like from the front... ;-)


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## ADK46 (Aug 4, 2018)

I worry about the software-controlled brake lights. I think I've had someone upset with me about them. They shouldn't madly flash on auto-pilot, but who knows.


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## Bigriver (Jan 26, 2018)

Thanks for your responses. Thank you @Ed Woodrick for giving me the words "trailer work lights" as I have never seen a light bar like that before. @webdriverguy, I'm adding a link to the dropbox file based on your suggestion. From what I can see, it should be public. @Ron2andia I not only do not see a license plate number, I don't see a license plate.

A few more words about the context. This is on I-79 with a speed limit of 55 mph in this section but people go a lot faster. I was probably going about 65. The clip starts with me in the left lane, having just passed a slower car in the middle lane. I had actually traveled behind the slower car for a bit until it was fully clear to move into the passing lane. After I moved back into the center lane, I'm pretty sure no one was ever behind me other than the slower car. Then it's not until 20 seconds into the clip that a car on the left and the truck on the right show up at about the same time. I had been on Navigate on Autopilot at the time, but really not sure what my reflexes did during the incident. I think I took over steering but I think adaptive cruise stayed on.

I like the idea that maybe the truck just inadvertently switched on his trailer work lights, then flipped them off as soon as he realized it. Could that switch be next to his turn signals and he hit it instead of the turn signals? There was no turn signal when he moved into the center lane but he did signal when he was about halfway moved back over to the right lane -- which is about the same timing as when he blinded me coming into the lane. (He seems to be a start-your-turn-then-turn-on-your-signal guy. Which is slightly better than an I-don't-know-what-a-turn-signal-is guy.) Regardless, it was a few scary moments. I've never had a dash cam before, and this is my first experience with being able to relive a "what just happened there?" moment.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x5pi1gvnv5e97hr/saved-front-2019-01-24_18-46 - Copy.mp4?dl=0


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## iChris93 (Feb 3, 2017)

Bigriver said:


> Thanks for your responses. Thank you @Ed Woodrick for giving me the words "trailer work lights" as I have never seen a light bar like that before. @webdriverguy, I'm adding a link to the dropbox file based on your suggestion. From what I can see, it should be public. @Ron2andia I not only do not see a license plate number, I don't see a license plate.
> 
> A few more words about the context. This is on I-79 with a speed limit of 55 mph in this section but people go a lot faster. I was probably going about 65. The clip starts with me in the left lane, having just passed a slower car in the middle lane. I had actually traveled behind the slower car for a bit until it was fully clear to move into the passing lane. After I moved back into the center lane, I'm pretty sure no one was ever behind me other than the slower car. Then it's not until 20 seconds into the clip that a car on the left and the truck on the right show up at about the same time. I had been on Navigate on Autopilot at the time, but really not sure what my reflexes did during the incident. I think I took over steering but I think adaptive cruise stayed on.
> 
> ...


It seems clear he deliberately came into your lane to do that. Also, it seems like your auto high beams were going on and off before he did so I think @JasonF was correct.


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## Bigriver (Jan 26, 2018)

iChris93 said:


> It seems clear he deliberately came into your lane to do that. Also, it seems like your auto high beams were going on and off before he did so I think @JasonF was correct.


As he had never been in front of me, he would go about worrying who ahead of him has their high beams on when he thinks they shouldn't? The best I can tell they were not on high beam when he was next to me and pulling in front. With that, though, it is true that I probably need to turn off the auto high beams on highways, as I agree that the auto program sometimes has them on when they shouldn't be.


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## JasonF (Oct 26, 2018)

That huge light bar is aftermarket. Non factory equipment almost always has a switch either beneath the dashboard in front of the driver, above the driver, or to the right of the driver - far away from both the turn signal and hazard flashers. Usually because installers don’t want to deal with bundles of existing wires, or remove the steering column during install. So it’s very unlikely the driver bumped the switch by accident while looking for the turn signal.

You might have passed that driver earlier with your brights on, and he didn’t have the horsepower to catch up to you until then to punish you for it. Or he meant it to be a little bit passive-aggressive, so he waited until he was going to exit to hit you with the lights, so you couldn’t retaliate.

It’s also possible he’s one of those self-appointed highway patrol drivers who was upset that you were going over the speed limit and he wanted to force you to slow down. I see those every once in a while, and they’re willing to cross two lanes to brake check and force you to slow down, and then they’ll block if you try to pass.

Or maybe the friendlier version of that - maybe he heard something on his radio, or his radar detector was beeping, and he was doing you a favor slowing you down before a speed trap. The lights were to signal you that there’s a cop ahead (it’s possible he doesn’t know how bright they are, since he’s usually in the driver’s seat while running them).


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## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

Or it was the typical truck driver “thanks for letting me over” light flash and the driver doesn’t realize how these look to a driver behind.

EDIT - after watching the video, I do think he was telling you your brights had been flashing off/on un-neccessarily or he was trying to tell you there was something wrong with your car. Check your tail/brake lights/tires/etc.


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## Midnit3 (Oct 8, 2017)

The video shows to me he was being shady... just my thought.


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## RocketRay (Jun 6, 2018)

Looks to me like the truck did that on purpose. Cause he's a dick.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

I know that I79/I279 split very well, @Bigriver.

Whether or not your high beams were on, I think this was him trying to tell you that he thought you had your high beams on.

But man, that's an incredibly jerky way to signal it.


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## OPRCE (Sep 21, 2018)

Yes, I had this happen a few months ago for 1s on the motorway while passing an artic, only the LED floodlight* was placed under the trailer at about eye level, pointing rearward at 30° out, i.e. perfect for blinding cars alongside.

[ * something like this ] 








Luckily it was during daylight but still very disorientating, so much so I thought it was a speed-trap flash and only located the source after it had stopped.

Was never sure why he did that but on reading this thread am also suspecting my auto-highbeams may have been active unnoticed before I learned to disable them forever.

In any case there's no doubt this behaviour was deliberate, dangerous and illegal.


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## Karl Sun (Sep 19, 2018)

IMHO: Auto high meabs should ALWAYS be disabled.


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## Tom Hudson (Dec 20, 2017)

That absolutely looked deliberate. He wasn't in that lane more than 10 seconds; he did it just to hit you with the light, then moved back over. Jerk.

Apparently there are a lot of truck drivers who hate Tesla for one reason or another, and they frequently make aggressive moves like this. If this ever happens to me, I'm getting the license plate information immediately and calling the Highway Patrol.


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## Tom Hudson (Dec 20, 2017)

Karl Sun said:


> IMHO: Auto high meabs should ALWAYS be disabled.


I agree. I turned mine off the second day I had the car because they weren't behaving in a "friendly" manner.


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## FRC (Aug 4, 2018)

Auto high beams seem to function very well on dark two-lane roads. I think they are unnecessary/dangerous on divided highways.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

Tom Hudson said:


> I agree. I turned mine off the second day I had the car because they weren't behaving in a "friendly" manner.


I turn it on for the back roads, and turn it off for anything more populated.
It's not perfect, but works good enough for me on back roads.


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## Frully (Aug 30, 2018)

Definitely some flavour of road rage...
You said you changed back into the middle lane - is there the remotest chance you cut the semi off if he too was changing to the middle lane from the right while you were changing from the left? ALC shouldn't cut anyone off but it's possible. 
I've only ever had semis use their trailer lights on me if I forgot my high beams. I didn't make that mistake again.


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## SalisburySam (Jun 6, 2018)

FRC said:


> Auto high beams seem to function very well on dark two-lane roads. I think they are unnecessary/dangerous on divided highways.


Have to disagree with that last part. As long as you're not blinding on-coming or traffic in front of you, high beams are very helpful on divided highways as well. This is especially true for areas with an abundance of deer who want to get to the other side. I've hit one of these beautiful creatures before and it wasn't pretty for either the deer or the vehicle. At least the high beams give you a few additional seconds to react to the reflection of an animals eyes looking at your lights from just off the road surface. AEB doesn't help in this case yet. It also helps in the case of those in front of you who have forgotten to turn on their lights at night (?) or rear lights aren't working. Both situations uncommon but I've seen both anyway.


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## Needsdecaf (Dec 27, 2018)

garsh said:


> I turn it on for the back roads, and turn it off for anything more populated.
> It's not perfect, but works good enough for me on back roads.


Yup.

I have had them on several vehicles but never used them as I live in fairly urban / suburban areas. IMO, they are only good for rural areas.

And OP, that was totally deliberate on the truck driver's part.


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## John (Apr 16, 2016)

I could understand the truck doing that if your headlights were off completely. Otherwise probably something you were doing previously annoyed him.


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## mikeband (Sep 7, 2018)

Tom Hudson said:


> That absolutely looked deliberate. He wasn't in that lane more than 10 seconds; he did it just to hit you with the light, then moved back over. Jerk.
> 
> Apparently there are a lot of truck drivers who hate Tesla for one reason or another, and they frequently make aggressive moves like this. If this ever happens to me, I'm getting the license plate information immediately and calling the Highway Patrol.


ICE-hole truckers too? Afraid self-driving Tesla Semis are threatening their jobs?


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## msjulie (Feb 6, 2018)

My impression was he did that because he wanted to drive faster than you and probably thought you should be over in the right lane - any chance that there was a no-trucks-in-left lane area? 

I hate that my first thought was negative about the truck driver but unfortunately some of my personal experience is that other folks like to 'teach people lessons' when they think you are doing something wrong.

BTW I'm not saying you should have been in the right lane, I'm just supposing the truck driver might have thought that..


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

msjulie said:


> My impression was he did that because he wanted to drive faster than you and probably thought you should be over in the right lane


This was right before the highways splits, and there are plenty of very large overhead signs leading up to this split. If he thought that, then he doesn't usually travel on that section of highway. All the slow cars splitting off to the left end up in that middle lane at this point.


> - any chance that there was a no-trucks-in-left lane area?


No, there are not. But given that the road splits, and the truck continued to take the right fork, the truck wouldn't have wanted the left lane.


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