Drivers fed up with headlight glare can comment on plans for new federal rules until Nov. 9

Docket No. NHTSA-2026-1981 on regulations.gov is open until November 9, 2026, and anything a driver writes into it becomes part of the record for NHTSA’s first negotiated rewrite of vehicle lighting rules in more than 25 years. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened the docket on October 6 alongside its plan to rewrite FMVSS No. 108 by negotiated rulemaking. Comments, and applications to sit on the negotiating committee, are due on the same day.

What the public is commenting on is narrower than a finished rule. No draft text exists, so there is no brightness limit or aim requirement to praise or attack yet, only the scope of the effort, the makeup of the committee and the nominees for its seats. The comment window is the first of several steps before any change reaches a showroom.

Submitting through regulations.gov

NHTSA’s announcement says it is “soliciting public comments on the scope, committee membership balance, as well as formal nominations for membership,” and that all comments and membership applications must be received by November 9, 2026. Submissions go through the federal docket on regulations.gov under the number above. The agency lists no separate mailing address or email route in the release.

The regulations.gov page loads its contents with scripts, which means the number of comments already filed and any supporting documents could not be read for this article, so no tally of who has weighed in so far is given here.

Committee seats and the statutory test

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy is to appoint up to 18 stakeholders representing lighting manufacturers, motor vehicle equipment associations, safety organizations, research institutions and engineering associations. A driver who is not affiliated with any of those groups can still comment on whether the mix is fair, which is the “committee membership balance” question NHTSA names, or can nominate someone who is, whether a researcher who studies night vision, an optometrist or a lighting engineer from outside the industry.

Federal law sets the test NHTSA must pass before it seats such a body. Under 5 U.S.C. 563, an agency head may create a negotiated rulemaking committee only after concluding it serves the public interest, weighing seven factors. They include whether a need for the rule exists, whether a limited number of interests will be significantly affected, whether balanced representation is feasible, and whether consensus within a fixed timeframe is likely. The statute also lets the agency use a convener to interview affected people and judge whether a committee can work, and the convener’s findings must be made public on request.

The seven factors give a commenter something concrete to address. A note that pickup and SUV drivers or older drivers have no seat, or that the committee lacks anyone who studies glare physiology, speaks directly to the balance factor.

Evidence a commenter can cite

AAA’s national survey gives the clearest public-opinion baseline. Interviews with 1,092 U.S. adults on February 5 to 8, 2026 found that 60 percent of drivers call glare a problem after dark, and 73 percent of those say it has worsened over the past decade. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points at 95 percent confidence. Oncoming headlights were the cause for 92 percent.

The survey also sorts drivers by who notices it. Seventy percent of prescription-glasses wearers reported glare against 56 percent of other drivers, and 70 percent of women against 57 percent of men. Drivers of pickups reported it less often, 41 percent, than drivers of other vehicles, 66 percent. AAA’s Greg Brannon, its director of automotive engineering and research, called glare “a major source of frustration and concern for millions of drivers.” AAA’s release advises drivers to keep factory headlights clean and working and to avoid staring at oncoming lights, and it makes no recommendation to regulators, so the survey measures complaints without endorsing any rule change.

Specifics carry more weight than general complaints. A comment that names a road type, a time of night, a vehicle height or a headlamp style gives the committee something to test, which a general statement that headlights are too bright does not.

Stern’s account of the 2001 glare inquiry

The agency has asked the public about glare before. Lighting analyst Daniel Stern’s account of NHTSA’s 2001 and 2002 request for comment says it drew well over 5,000 responses and was closed without regulatory changes. Stern notes that glare complaints have grown in volume and pitch as headlamps became smaller, bluer and brighter.

The 2026 round differs in structure, since it feeds a committee built to reach consensus rather than an open-ended inquiry. NHTSA has not published a timeline for how long that committee will have, so the November 9 deadline is the only date on the record.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.