Meh. My partner reads a book all the time at night, and it’s not such a big deal. Some cars are worse than others, and some people completely overreact.
I feel like maybe night vision was more important with older cars? Now headlights are blinding.
Older cars actually followed good practices about the interior and gauges lighting. All used red, yellow or orange backlights to not impact your night vision.
Now cars are full of bright white screens…
Light inside the car reflects off of everything in the car, sometimes including the window. If it’s dark outside, this might mean the driver cannot see anything outside of the car. Also, the sudden change in brightness might cause the driver’s eyes to adjust, trmporarily blinding them.
Generally, it is best if the driver can see through the windows and outside of the car.
Biochemically adjusting to a brighter environment takes the eyes a fraction of a second, but adapting to a darker environment takes them 20-30 minutes. This is the reason pirates wore eyepatches despite both eyes being intact, you can enter the belly of a ship and have at least one eye already adapted to darkness.
My friend put a string of dim Christmas lights behind the seats for her kids. It’s pretty cute and the light is mostly blocked by the seats.
