anyone else wish headlights were 'dumber'?

rcutclif wrote:

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.

only required to have the lights on if the wipers are on full (as opposed to intermittent)

I have never had a car with automatic headlights.. and I don't care to. My old Volvo 850 had the headlights set to always be on. The little screw switch hidden on the main body of the switch cured that

wbjones wrote:

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

As fare as I can tell, the "light on" indicator is green, "high beams" is blue, bad things are yellow, really bad things are red.

And my Fiesta turns the lights on when I turn the wipers on.

BTW, I just thought of something- there IS a switch to MANUALLY control the lights. We are complaining about that ability to manually turn the lights on and off? I've not seen a car, yet, that 100% fully takes automatic control of the headlights....

(and to be the bad one- I love the auto lights. I switched the car to Auto when I drove the car out of the dealer, and have left it there since)

I'm not complaining about the manual switch. Its what I use, but not what my wife uses, and she drives the car about 1/2 the time.

I would be willing to put it in the auto mode, but the lights don't seem to come on reliably in all the situations they should. I know if I use auto lights on a regular basis I will think about my headlights less and less, (and because I can't tell if the lights are off because my dash is always bright) and start to drive around like an idiot with no lights in bad weather when the car fails to turn them on.

Maybe its more just a worry that the lights will fail to come on when they should?

I'm really happy with the auto lights on my Fiesta (ST) as well. Super-convenient to just punch the button and go. If I have to force them on in the daytime, like on certain mountain roads that mandate daytime lights, it's actually less clicks of the dial to get to the on position from auto than it is from off. (It goes off-parking-on-auto.) BMW's way of doing it, with auto to the left and all the manual positions to the right, is a bit more of a hassle.

Not sure if they come on automatically in the rain, the car hasn't seen much of it since I'm in Southern California, and it'll probably never see snow in the time I own it unless I go through the trouble and expense of getting winter wheels and tires just to take it to the slopes a few times a year. The ST does seem like it'd be a ton of fun on a snow-covered rally road though...

Our '14 Avalon has a headlight "feature" that really annoys me but not the wife. In the Auto setting, you can't turn on the brights. The car decides when the hi beams should be on. If I'm driving down a dark street and I want to flash the hi beams to look for a street sign or an address, the hi beams won't activate. If I flip the stalk to manual lights, it works like normal and let's you use the hi beams when YOU want.

alfadriver wrote:

wbjones wrote:

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

As fare as I can tell, the "light on" indicator is green, "high beams" is blue, bad things are yellow, really bad things are red. And my Fiesta turns the lights on when I turn the wipers on. BTW, I just thought of something- there IS a switch to MANUALLY control the lights. We are complaining about that ability to manually turn the lights on and off? I've not seen a car, yet, that 100% fully takes automatic control of the headlights.... (and to be the bad one- I love the auto lights. I switched the car to Auto when I drove the car out of the dealer, and have left it there since)

the headlights on my '01 Grand Prix come on whenever the BCM thinks they need to come on, regardless of the position of the switch. there is no "auto" selection- just "off", "P" and "symbol for headlights with beams of light shooting out".. the DRL's (low beams on reduced power) come on most of the time- but not all of the time- in plain daylight, and the headlights and dash lights come on if it's dark enough. i'm pretty sure that's why the headlights of every Grand Prix from that area are frosted over on the inside and driving the thing at night sucks.. the switch really doesn't do anything and is just there to fill the space in the dash to the left of the steering wheel.

my old 04 Cavalier was the same way, except the switch was part of the turn signal lever for some reason, but at least that car had a fuse i was able to pull to disable the DRLs.

put me in the category of people that don't like this stuff... it also aggravates me that the dome light pops on when i turn the key off and the radio stays on and power windows work for 10 minutes or until a door is opened after removing the key. all this is just unnecessary, and it's just more stuff to go wrong... the worst part is that it's all integrated into the BCM, so i can't just pull a couple of fuses and make the car work properly..

alfadriver 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** 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.

You look directly at the sun while driving?

I always drive the Volvo with the headlights on, regardless of the time of day. You see, it seems that people have a harder time noticing a car that's a similar color to asphalt.

bravenrace wrote:

alfadriver 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** 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.

You look directly at the sun while driving?

You look directly into DRL while driving?

Even still, the reflection of that sun thing off of other cars is a TON brighter than DLRs.

Do you look into driving lights at night? DLR's are not as bright as normal driving lights.

Headlights ,and their control mechanisms are such a divisive issue around here! Who would have guessed that!?

HappyAndy wrote: Headlights ,and their control mechanisms are such a divisive issue around here! Who would have guessed that!?

Eh, it's the same "old tech vs. new tech" argument we've had about a million other similar topics.

My only contribution to this thread is to say that these have become the Cadillac "tail fins" of the 2010s:

If you're saying that they make the car look badass, then yes, I agree.

Mr_Clutch42 wrote: If you're saying that they make the car look bad, then yes, I agree.

In reply to alfadriver:

You're comparing things we can't do anything about with something we can do something about. Also, That particular discussion was about people with their headlights on during a normal day, not DRL's. And yes, I look at headlights when driving. How else can I see where the vehicles are? If I don't, then the lights aren't helping anything.
I have no real problem with DRL's, but I also don't think they have any positive measurable effect on safety.

I run with my headlights on all the time. I prefer other people to see me, and I disabled the DRLs because they're not bright, pointless, and ugly. HIDs show up much better in daylight to other drivers, especially in a dark colored normal-size car in the land of SUVs.

In reply to irish44j:

Why do you think people can't see you on a perfectly clear day?

bravenrace wrote: In reply to irish44j: Why do you think people can't see you on a perfectly clear day?

because people in this area don't pay any berkeleying attention when they're driving. Too busy on their cellphones, texting, or fiddling with their nav systems. My black (usually dirty black) car doesn't exactly flash out like a blue STi does and catch your eye. I prefer to have anything I can to keep some jackass from turning out in front of me, and to catch his eye when he's not really paying attention. I'm also generous with the bi-xenon HIDs flashing if some shiny happy person looks like they're about to pull out in front of me from a sidestreet. And trust me, even in the day, they always notice and don't pull out...I've had too many close calls to NOT do that.

While I guess I could just paint the car bright orange with flags all over it, I figure this is a more reasonable way of actually having my car not look ugly, yet still accomplish the same general goal. Headlights on cost me nothing and even if my "theory" is wrong, there's at worst no harm in having them on.

One could say "why do emergency vehicles have bright flashing lights on them? It's not like people can't see a big red firetruck coming their way"....

It's to catch your attention when you're not really paying attention.

When I had my red Prelude a lady turned in front of me on a bright, clear beautiful day. She tried to say she didn't see me. The fact that I had a bright red car, it was a clear bright day, there were no blind spots on this section of road, and I had my lights on was all evidence the policeman used to cite her as 100% at fault. People don't look, you might as well stack the deck in your favor.

What gets me is that vehicles from the same manufacturer have a different auto headlights feature. My $19k, base model, 2011 Ram 1500 had an auto headlight position on the stalk. When in auto mode, the lights would also turn on whenever the wipers were on. It wasn't perfect but it was a decent feature. Now my $25k 2012 Jeep Wrangler, which has the exact same switchgear does not have auto headlights. Sure, you can get it on a Sahara, as an extra cost option.

I would think it would be cheaper to just make it standard on everything that uses the same switchgear?

irish44j wrote: One could say "why do emergency vehicles have bright flashing lights on them? It's not like people can't see a big red firetruck coming their way".... It's to catch your attention when you're not really paying attention.

Correct, but they wouldn't get anyone's attention if everyone had them. The more cars that have DRL's or run their headlights during the day, the less it matters. Pretty soon we'll all be driving around blinding each other for absolutely no reason.

So we should all drive with wig-wags on, any season, any light condition, any weather.

Maybe sirens too.

Just in case.