I’m in the market for a new car immediately, and my issue is PWM causing eye pain . My current car is a 2006 and I have no issues with the dashboard lights. There are no screens in the car. Does anyone drive a newer 2016-2019 model that doesn’t affect them? Or recommend another vehicle that has worked for you. Thank you.

sjix I was in the same position a few months back. Here is my experience: Subaru XV does not affect me at all. The dashboard can be reduced to almost no light. I have it on manual in terms of light adjustment. For me the best in terms of dashboard lights. Nissan Qashqai is a bit worse than Subaru XV but still manageable for me, i got used to it pretty fast. You can manually adjust the lights. Volkswagen Group and Toyota displays (especially hybrids) are not good for me. My wife has a Corolla and it is terrible. We were forced to use tints to help me when in the car. Also in Toyota i haven't found how to manually adjust the dashboard. The dealer told me that it is fully automatic. With the tints though I can tolerate it a bit better. Also my best friend has an Audi, same bad experience. I dont know how this will be with tints. I also did a test drive of Skoda Kodiaq, oh boy i thought someone pierced my eyes. The lights were so bright, and the salesman in the dealership did not know how to reduce them.

Just bought Toyota RAV4. It's display causes immediate brain strain. There is a possibility to change the brightness, but it is doesn't help. And there is no way to turn the screen off. And I am not sure about dashboard, probably it is also affects me. I am in a panic. Need advice how to deal with it. Could somebody recommend any polarized film or smth similar?

When I was at the car show, was looking for a CUV. Subaru Forester display seemed low strain. GMC Terrain / Chevy Equinox mid strain, Mazda CX-5 and KIA Sportage high strain.

Buy a used car without a screen. Thats the only real solution to be honest. Every car screen I have ever seen has been absolutely terrible. It's a shame they decides to stick screens in every new car, but here we are. You have my support

New car, LED screens/lights, PWM

valex13

I found the way to turn the screen off in RAV4. But to do it you have to do three steps entering display setup menu every time. It is very uncomfortable! Does anybody have a good experience with blue light screen filters or smth similar?

Peter

valex13 In my job they will provide me as a company car the new Toyota Corolla. My wife has an older model and it does create me strain. Have you managed to somehow ease the discomfort with the Rav4? Thnx

Peter

ensete I agree if it is an older model. I tried the new Skoda Karoq with the basic analog display, and the light of this basic dashboard was killing me.

Peter

degen I also like Subarus. The lights are ok for me even for long hours of driving. Also the brightness can be reduced to almost zero for night driving.
I believe I can also tolerate Nissan X trail and Quashai, the dashboard lights can also adjust with buttons to a low level of brightness.

Volkswagen group and Toyota dashboards are up to now the worst offenders for me.

Peter

Peter
I want to add a new experience for Subaru XV (Crosstrek) for those seeking to purchase a new car.
Yesterday a colleague received this same car. After work we went for a ride in a near mountain in order for me to show him a few things the car can do.
I got eyestrain, even with the dashboard lights to the lowest value!!! The dashboard lights were brighter, Subaru definitely changed something this year vs the 2019 production for the same car.

JTL

That's unfortunate

tomek

I'm waiting now for new Volvo V60, I had this one only for 24h and dash was pretty useable it looks little blueish but I didn't had direct strain. I had skoda and VW for testing and I had the same issue as Peter - direct eye strain. I think this displays have too much violet tint. I'm afraid only of LED Lights, test car at night gave me much strain. Any way it was better then new Passat after using this at night I almost vomited. I will try to use some UV protector or just dim this with black foil. Cars which I want to buy don't have now old lights, so I will try to use this car or I will drive at day only 🙂 Any way inside lights don't bother me as much as VW group. I had same issue with my wife's Peugeot 208 - 2017, but after few months of using this it's ok now with dash. This 208 have old bulbs, LED's only as day lights so no problem for me to drive at night. Bad times for us are coming soon all cars will use LED headlights hope they will find out some eye safe for us.

Peter

tomek I think it is important to test the car you will ACTUALLY BUY. The Subaru CrossTrek model currently sold is the same as the model of 2019. I even went to the dealership near me to confirm this. However i got a terrible headache with the 2020 model. The 2019 is just great, no eyestrain at all, i have driven it for hours day and night with no issues .

AGI

Yesterday I sold my 15 year old second-hand car. I am temporarily renting a late model vehicle.
To my shock, after a 30 min drive, some pain and the feeling of a foreign body developed in my left eye, which is my weaker eye. Back home, I pulled out my laptop and realized that the initially moderate pain had quickly turned into a more diffused eyestrain in both eyes, strong twitching of the left eyelids and neck tension, similar to what I experience when I look at a bad device.

I drove the car only once and it was night. I am 99% sure the cause of my troubles is the illumination of the dashboard. Any suggestion? Have you guys succeeded getting rid of the strain by covering the display? Luckily, from what I remember, there are no other sources of lights, not even the classic light when the door opens. I am thinking of shielding the illuminated area with cardboard. Option number 2, since I will be renting for a month, is to ask for a replacement of the vehicle, but I am not sure they have old models available and I would sound a fruitcake.

mike

AGI have you tried to use only one eye? For me it has been the way back to modern screens. So it maybe works for you too?

Lauda89

mike Do you have some kind of eye phorias? Did you try to use glasses with prisms?

AGI

mike No, I have not tried. I may want to, but perhaps not while driving :-)
I am not reading or straining my eyes in any way in the car. The symptoms developed by just looking now and then at the speed display and peripherally viewing the lights which intermittently change from green to orange. I wonder, what is the point of those lights? It is a car, not a Christmas tree.

Doing computer work, how long can you use one eye for? Can you stay the whole day in the office with an eyepatch?

For your information, I have done quite a lot of exercises with a pen and a Brock string to relax my eyes. I have also visited numerous ophthalmologists and an orthoptist. No one found anything anomalous. I am currently trying glasses with a blue filter, and I do not wear prescription glasses.

mike

Lauda89 I think i have some type of eye phorias. No one of the specialists i have visit has confirmed that. The answer I get a lot is, we can’t find any problem, you should try a pair of glasses.

My optician has confirmed that only one eye moves when she moved a pen to my nose while i am watching the pen. I got a set of glasses 1,5 years ago, i am not sure if they have prisms. I tested the glasses for two months without results.

mike

AGI About three-four years ago a company opened a new store i the town where i live, they had led lights in the roof. After 15 minutes in the store i could feel tension headache. Not long after that a new restaurant open in a central galleria, they had also led lights in the roof. My girlfriend wanted to try it, unfortunately i had to leave the restaurant before i was finished and got long tension headache. That sucked.

Same with cars, i have friends that have newer BMW, Volvo, Audi etc. Just sitting in the passenger seat and avoiding the screens also gave me tension headache after a while.

When i have trained with one eye i have done it for one or some hours on a day. Not a whole day, its a little bit uncomfortable. And repeat on that for some days to get results. Because it works on me, maybe it works on somebody else with same/similar symptoms.

I have tested a lot of things under the last nine years. In the end i think the solution is to relearn how the brain controls the eyes, and then we are back on one-eye-training.

alireza_atazadeh

mike Read this carefully
A few nights ago, I was crossing a street with many shops.
I turned on the cell phone camera
I set the mobile camera to Proffessional mode
Then I set the shutter speed to 1/1000
I started walking past the shops and it was very interesting that some of the shops had their lights on very Flickering.
While others used LED bulbs, there was no blink.
In fact, I am coming to the conclusion that a number of LED manufacturers, for various reasons, including increasing the lifespan of LEDs in situations where those LEDs are of poor quality, try to reduce the frequency of turning on and off the LEDs, and this is even for some people. It is also dangerous that they do not have a problem with this issue. Because after a few years, their eyes will definitely have problems.
Is health important for trade and income for these producers? Yes sure . Just sell for less.
You can also test this, with safety and caution

WITHUT MOBILE CAMERA AND 1/900 OR 1/1000 OR 1/1500 , ...... sHUTTER SPEED CANOT SEE FLICKER BY EYE !
BUT IT CAN START YOUR HEADACHE
YOU SHOULD NOT TAKE PICTURE ! ONLY SHOULD VIEW BULB BEHIND CELL PHONE CAMERA IN 1/N SHUTTER SPEED IN PICTURE MODE !
sOME CELL PHONE WITH AUTO SHUTTER SPEED MODE PREVENT TO SEE FLICKER BUT FOR EXAMPLE I AM SEE fLICKERS BEHINDS HUAWEI MATE 8 AS CELL PHONE , AND HUAWEI MATE 8 IS A GOOD CELL PHONE THAT IN LOW OR HIGH BRIGHTNESS NOT HAHE PWM FLICKERING PROBLEM , I CN SEE 4-6 HOURSE MOVIE BEHIND HUAWEI MATE 8

tomek

Next week should be registered and I hope that I will get used to it. It had the best displays from new cars, but LEDs Headlights gave me strain at testing. I will try to put some black foil on it we will see.

KM

I know this, too. I sit in the passenger's seat and look out of the window, yet the dashboard's LEDs trigger long-lasting symptoms within a few minutes (or seconds, rather). Sitting in the backseat doesn't help. If the LEDs are in the peripheral vision, it's all that's needed to trigger in no time. It is hard to convince anyone this problem is real.

alireza_atazadeh

KM THAT'S Right . Because some manufacure of LED use low frequency with PWM to low Cost and increase the LED life.

AGI

mike Uh, it is too bad that no one noticed that only one eye would follow the pen. It is a pretty simple test.
It is shameful how many ophthalmologists work. It seems done on purpose. When I went to a vision therapy session, the therapist explained how he had to fight the ophthalmologist community all his professional life. He mentioned (in 2014) that especially in Asia there is no vision therapy culture. I am experiencing it myself. I have not been unable to find any support in the past three years in Japan.
Also, I too found that my old optician without a medical degree was the only one to put me on the right track a couple of decades ago. He noticed that my left eye was a bit lazy and recommended me some simple exercises with a pen. They helped, as the Brock string helps to relax my eyes, but sadly there is no exercise which soothes my symptoms in front of a bad device.

mike

AGI Good to hear that an optician put you on the right track. Looks like a good optician is the best way to go.

Back in 2011-2012 i did some simple tests at home with one eye. It was on a screen that was a little bad. At that time I didn’t discover any diffence between one and two eyes. I should have done more and longer test behind bad screens. So when i got a question from a specialist, is it any difference if you cover one eye i answered no. Which i know now is incorrect, at least for me.

Because of that i want more people with same/similar problems to cover one eye and train with bad screens.

About training with a brook string, i got this answer from a Swedish orthoptist - “In Sweden we don’t do training, we don’t believe in it. Only glasses.”

For a couple of months ago i found a specialist that maybe could be worth to meet. But because i have made a lot of progress, i haven’t book a time with him.

https://medarbetare.ki.se/people/tonpan

https://www.sankterik.se/sv-se/forskning/vara-forskare/tony-pansell

Use google translate to translate from Swedish.

@martin should i book a time with Tony?

tomek

Ok so after almost 3 weeks of using my Volvo V60 MY21 Rdesign, I can say it is the best car with all digital displays and LED headlights form me now. I've been trying some other's like VW, SKODA, Audi and BMW and there I felt like using new MacBooks after few minutes. First drive with Volvo I felt that this interior is friendly for my eyes it was worst during night drive at testing. In test unit I had HighBeam Led's. In my car I have just regular LED this is very white but after few days I can drive at night with just little strain. I don't use now ambient LED's and all is an minimum level but I can use this car like old ones. No compere to others like Passat which gave me big head pain. So if you considering new car please look at Volvo too.

Peter

tomek I can say that you may have a point with Volvos. My bosses XC90 seems ok when I am in the car with him. But i cant buy this one 😁, so I will have a look at a cheaper one to see how it is. Their displays seem more friendly in the eyes for me.

Gurm

tomek

I'm going to drive a 2019 Volvo S60 and see what it's like.