<story><title>The US will finally allow adaptive beam headlights on new cars</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/cars/2022/02/the-us-will-finally-allow-adaptive-beam-headlights-on-new-cars/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>qwerty456127</author><text>This is because the only place for progress in America seemingly is within yet-nonexistent unregulated areas. As soon as something gets regulated in the US it mostly is doomed to lag decades behind the rest of the developed world (because American policymakers apparently are not fond of updating existing laws&amp;#x2F;rules and the bureaucracy is not flexible enough, often prioritizing the letter of the law). Of course there are exceptions (let alone particular regulations which do much more good than harm) but this seems to be the rule.</text></item><item><author>prng2021</author><text>We allow companies like Tesla to jeopardize people&amp;#x27;s lives while the company beta tests &amp;quot;full self driving&amp;quot; technology, but are scared of allowing proven safe technology like adaptive headlights.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>snovv_crash</author><text>Metamizol (Novalgin) is probably one of the biggest examples of this I know. It&amp;#x27;s a non-NSAID, non-addictive painkiller that was discovered over 100 years ago and banned in the USA in the 60s. It has a similar danger profile to Diclofenac (Voltaren), which is now prescribed like candy. And it is still widely used in Germany and Switzerland, so there is lots of data on &amp;#x27;modern&amp;#x27; populations. But since nobody can patent it, there&amp;#x27;s no motivation to get it reapproved in the US, so everyone get opioids instead.</text></comment>
<story><title>The US will finally allow adaptive beam headlights on new cars</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/cars/2022/02/the-us-will-finally-allow-adaptive-beam-headlights-on-new-cars/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>qwerty456127</author><text>This is because the only place for progress in America seemingly is within yet-nonexistent unregulated areas. As soon as something gets regulated in the US it mostly is doomed to lag decades behind the rest of the developed world (because American policymakers apparently are not fond of updating existing laws&amp;#x2F;rules and the bureaucracy is not flexible enough, often prioritizing the letter of the law). Of course there are exceptions (let alone particular regulations which do much more good than harm) but this seems to be the rule.</text></item><item><author>prng2021</author><text>We allow companies like Tesla to jeopardize people&amp;#x27;s lives while the company beta tests &amp;quot;full self driving&amp;quot; technology, but are scared of allowing proven safe technology like adaptive headlights.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>TomSwirly</author><text>I expected this to be a rant about bureaucracy and it turned out to be a nuanced and rational discussion of the failure of American government. Good stuff.&lt;p&gt;I would only add that this isn&amp;#x27;t an accident - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Regulatory_capture&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Regulatory_capture&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;For a large company, draconian regulations can be to their distinct advantage, as them very size allows them to handle the cost and complexity, while smaller companies cannot - or they can simply cheat, and if caught, swallow penalties that would destroy a small company.</text></comment>