anyone else wish headlights were 'dumber'?

my wife and I had a road trip last weekend, and got to talking about each of our beefs with the others' headlight usage.

Vehicle: 2012 Focus

Her usage: Put it in auto mode, then never, ever, worry about it again.

My usage: Use the lights manually, turn them on and off just about every time I get into or out of the car.

My Beef: I would love to use the auto mode, but the car is horrible at turning on the headlights at 2 pm if it is raining (and your headlights should be on in the rain, always). If I use the auto mode, I will quickly forget to do anything about the headlights, ever.

Real Question: Why doesn't the 'auto' mode in ALL CARS just turn the lights on when the car is on, and turn the lights off when the car is off? I know there are cars that do this (camry's, for example), but why are we trying to get so 'smart' to turn the headlights on and off based on ambient light levels?

Maybe there is some Key on, key off, gas pedal stomp sequence that will change my headlight setting?

In reply to rcutclif:

Gas mileage. It takes energy to operate the headlights.

I agree and am surprised that there is not universal logic at this point to automatically turn them on when the wipers come on.

In reply to bravenrace:

Interesting - hadn't considered that. Makes sense. Still, is there a way to 'change the setting'? Maybe I can adjust the sensitivity all the way up.

I like the auto switch that turns them on/off for me. I haven't had to jump start my car because I left my lights on on a rainy day in years. I can still operate it manually if I want to but why would I? Set it and forget it. If it rains you hit on and put it back to auto so it remembers to turn them off. Lovely.

My Astro van had full auto lights as the default and I really did not like it at all. I am a manual lights kind of gal. I like to be able to signal to someone in front of me if they need to move over that the lane is clear by turning my lights off and then back on. Full auto lights makes this impossible, they're just on regardless of what you do with the switch.

In the Astro, there was an override sequence that involved Pressing the "Dome Override" button four times quickly. I would do this everytime I started the van just to have manual control over the lights.

A quick google suggests that the Ford dealer can disable the smart headlights for you, probably for a fee, and that they will work like regular headlights then.

My Astro also had the automatic door locks that lock the car when you start rolling, which honestly scared the crap out of me the first time I drove it. I said, "oh, hell no!" and found the override for that E36 M3 immediately. Nobody locks my doors but me, thank you.

glueguy wrote: I agree and am surprised that there is not universal logic at this point to automatically turn them on when the wipers come on.

I think my car may have this logic, but it really doesn't solve fog/drizzle or light rain or light snow, when I may only 'bump' my wipers to go once every few minutes or so.

In reply to rcutclif:

Does it have the setting to turn on the lights when the wipers are on? I know that several years ago I rode in my friend's Durango and it had auto lights and there was a setting for them to come on when the wipers were on.

The main reason for the lights to not be on full time is energy usage. IT is likely that all cars will soon have some small bank of running lights using LEDs glowing full time.

Lets split the cars into two categories:

• Cars with Daytime running lights. DRLs are lights that come on whenever the car is on. However early in their introduction to market automakers found that drivers would not realize that their headlights are not on. So they would be driving around with NO parking lights and NO tail lights. So due to complaints and lawsuits they started putting auto lights on any car with DRLS.
• Cars without DRLS. The auto lights is seen as a convenience to be that much more focused on your driving instead of auxiliary controls. Just kidding they allow you to be lazy.

Ask the dealer if you can have them flash the computer to allow the lights to stay on DRL style if you want but leave it in Auto if you do so you won't forget to turn them on when you already see a glow in front of you from the DRLs.

Yup. Mfrs. can put ergonomically disastrous infotainment systems in the dash, but they can't engineer a simple circuit that turns on the headlamps when the wipers are switched on, in spite of laws in many states that require lights to be on when wipers are on.

Hmm. My Volt turns the lights on anytime the wipers are on (even on intermittent). I don't have a problem with it at all.

rcutclif wrote: Real Question: Why doesn't the 'auto' mode in ALL CARS just turn the lights on when the car is on, and turn the lights off when the car is off?

Because cars driving with their headlights on in clear, bright conditions are incredibly berking annoying and just add needless clutter to the visual background noise that makes it harder to see motorcycles, pedestrians, bicycles, and emergency vehicles.

Duke wrote:

rcutclif wrote: Real Question: Why doesn't the 'auto' mode in ALL CARS just turn the lights on when the car is on, and turn the lights off when the car is off?

Because cars driving with their headlights on in clear, bright conditions are **incredibly berking annoying** and just add needless clutter to the visual background noise that makes it harder to see motorcycles, pedestrians, bicycles, and emergency vehicles.

you really think so? I notice people incorrectly using headlights all the time but regular lights on in the day never bothers me, the regular headlights are just not nearly bright enough compared to the sunlight to really make any difference.

High-beams in the day are, however, a much different story since they are aimed right in your mirrors.

I liked my '78 Blazer.

Manual lights, push-button on the floor for high beams.

Believe it or not, headlights don't need to be smarter than that, I can handle it.

rcutclif wrote:

Duke wrote:

rcutclif wrote: Real Question: Why doesn't the 'auto' mode in ALL CARS just turn the lights on when the car is on, and turn the lights off when the car is off?

Because cars driving with their headlights on in clear, bright conditions are **incredibly berking annoying**

you really think so?

YES. Absolutely. I hate it. It's pointless and distracting. DRLs and daytime headlights should be reserved for vehicles that require extra attention for safety, not just for any shmoe on a milk run to WalMart.

I also blame the rise of electroluminescent gauges for incorrect headlight usage. It used to be that even if you thought you could see the street well enough, you'd notice it was dark because you couldn't see your dashboard. Now the binnacle looks the same night or day and it's that much easier for morons to drive lights out in the dark.

Duke wrote:

rcutclif wrote: Real Question: Why doesn't the 'auto' mode in ALL CARS just turn the lights on when the car is on, and turn the lights off when the car is off?

Because cars driving with their headlights on in clear, bright conditions are **incredibly berking annoying** and just add needless clutter to the visual background noise that makes it harder to see motorcycles, pedestrians, bicycles, and emergency vehicles.

Right, that 100W light is just so bright in comparison with the SUN. Terrible....

FWIW, if it annoys you that you notice them that much, then it works. That is, indeed, the point of DRLs.

In reply to rcutclif:

I think what he is getting at is that it is indeed annoying as berkeley. Motorcycles running lights is proper since its a safety thing(Not condoning the harley/goldwing strobe bullE36 M3)

Running lights in the daytime do a few things, they add additional stimulae that the brain must compute, they also obstruct ones vision past them to other things that need to be seen, and they also are wasteful in regard to additional hours being put on your light bulbs. FWIW, DRL's are about the dumbest thing I've heard of.

yamaha wrote: In reply to rcutclif: I think what he is getting at is that it is indeed annoying as berkeley. Motorcycles running lights is proper since its a safety thing(Not condoning the harley/goldwing strobe bullE36 M3) Running lights in the daytime do a few things, they add additional stimulae that the brain must compute, they also obstruct ones vision past them to other things that need to be seen, and they also are wasteful in regard to additional hours being put on your light bulbs. FWIW, DRL's are about the dumbest thing I've heard of.

Thank you. You just saved me from unloading in a way I would probably regret later.

When everything has mandated DRLs on all the time, all you've done is raise the bar a notch or two, and then everything is back to the same relative levels of noticability. Except now it's harder to see things that aren't lit (pedestrians and cyclists) and things that are lit (motorcycles and emergency vehicles) have to be REALLY lit in order to distinguish themselves.

It's like being in a room with a TV and a conversation: the people talking speak up so they can hear each other, so the guy watching TV turns it up. So the people talking speak a little louder, so the guy watching TV turns it up... what's the point? Eventually you wind up wanting to shotgun the TV and scream at everybody to shut the berk up.

So why not just leave your headlights off unless your car will be hard to see in the prevailing weather / time conditions and make it easier for everybody to see things that really need to be seen?

Funny you should ask!

Rental Ford (fusion? I think it's our equivalent of the "Mondeo") had this feature where the headlight would dim when you turned on the blinker.

so left blinker on, left headlight would dim.

WHY!?!

I can not, for the life of me, figure out why this is a "feature". Wouldn't you want that light "on" so you could see?

maybe it's just me...

I want full manual control of EVERYTHING in the car. The only exception I make to that is delay wipers, (which I set the speed for anyway).

I hate DRL's and disable them on my cars when needed.

I think of DRLs like 3rd brake lights. When no one had them, they really stood out. When everyone has them, it no longer stands out - then we can go to arms race mode to brighter lights or maybe flashing lights for a little extra attention. All a moot point when we get the self-driving cars. They won't need lights at all - well except to keep pedestrians from walking in front of them.

The wife's Kia has auto headlights that come on way too late for my taste, and no sensitivity adjustment. I switch them on manually at dusk or in the rain.

My manual lights work just fine.

Hungary Bill wrote: so left blinker on, left headlight would dim. WHY!?!

Because, starting with the Mercedes CLK and those stupid top/bottom round headlights, it's become stylistically hip to put the blinkers right next to the headlight... where the output from the headlamp obscures the turn signal. Which, not coincidentally, illustrates my point about DRLs perfectly.

hip > function?

Reason # 15,499 I'm sticking to buying cheap old cars.

GOML (Get off my lawn)

Gearheadotaku wrote: I want full manual control of EVERYTHING in the car. The only exception I make to that is delay wipers, (which I set the speed for anyway). I hate DRL's and disable them on my cars when needed.

You should get a model T- you can even control the spark manually.

glueguy wrote: I agree and am surprised that there is not universal logic at this point to automatically turn them on when the wipers come on.

and have them come on in DIM mode … this for all the shiny happy people out there that can't see the little blue or red light on their dash