"smoked" light will shine as FAR as a non-smoked one. That's simple physics. And when DOT or NHTSA or whatever the equivalent bodies came up with specs for lights, I'm sure they didn't having tinting/smoking in mind. Not only that but I've never seen smoked taillights that retain the same *reflective* quality for when they are not illuminated, which is supposed to be another required safety feature of tail lights.