5 ms·

I see the opposite problem more often (Bay Area): cars with always-on daytime running lights that don’t turn on their headlights (and the corresponding tailligh

I see the opposite problem more often (Bay Area): cars with always-on daytime running lights that don’t turn on their headlights (and the corresponding taillights) at night. I flash my lights at them but this rarely seems to help.

wcunning 5y ago
This is a huge problem here in Michigan, too. Many cars come with automatic headlights, but many do not, particularly of a certain age, and the LED DRLs seem to be bright enough that people do not realize that they don't have their full lights on. I find this particularly infuriating in ugly snowstorms and the part of the year where the sun sets before 5:00pm... sigh
- kube-system 5y ago
  My theory is that these cars have multiple drivers. Driver A is used to vehicles with manual headlights and always turns their lights off when they get out. Driver B is used to "everything is automatic" and touches nothing when they get in.
  - wcunning 5y ago
    This is very possible -- I had this exact situation with my girlfriend until I managed to get her used to leaving it in automatic mode.
kube-system 5y ago
Cars have too many features. And I don't mean this in a, "I'm a luddite and wish cars were simple" type of way. I seriously think the number of controls on a vehicle (and burden of the owners manual) is so great that it is causing safety issues. My car has more controls for the lights alone than my first vehicle had for everything. Literally. "Automatic" features like headlights were supposed to make us safer, but I think that is backfiring as it is causing cognitive overload and making people complacent.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- nawgz 5y ago
  > My car has more controls for the lights alone than my first vehicle had for everything. Literally. As someone driving a 2021 Subaru who grew up in a 99 Integra and an 01 Civic. I don't see this at all? The controls are extremely familiar for the lighting, except my new car has a no-friction option: I turn on the "Auto" setting and it automatically puts on DRLs or full lights for me given the lighting conditions. It even turns on my lights for me when I pull into my parking garage at midday. How exactly could this be made less complex?
  - gkop 5y ago
    The Subaru auto headlights work great indeed. Other Subaru smart functionality is crap though. For example, the touchscreen and gauges auto-dimming: literally every time it auto-dims or auto-undims, I have to tweak the dimming level. It would be an objectively better car without the auto-dimming.
    - nawgz 5y ago
      > For example, the touchscreen and gauges auto-dimming: literally every time it auto-dims or auto-undims, I have to tweak the dimming level I have never noticed this, fingers crossed you didn't Baader-Meinhof me. The feature to aim the lights where you steer and auto-dim high beams when traffic is approaching and re-activate them works quite nicely for me as well, so I would consider the headlights to be a great strength of this vehicle. It is crazy to get into my partner's mid-2010s sedan and laugh at how bad the lights are at nighttime compared to the perfectly aimed and calibrated Subaru lights
      - idiotsecant 5y ago
        >It is crazy to get into my partner's mid-2010s sedan and laugh at how bad the lights are at nighttime compared to the perfectly aimed and calibrated Subaru lights On the other hand, that mid 2010s sedan's headlight system will age gracefully - there are no aiming servos to fail or autodim relay output to stop working or such thing. It's just lights with a switch to turn them on or off. Increased complexity also implies increased maintenance and often more troublesome failure modes when something does fail.
cptskippy 5y ago
I've never understood why DRL are only in the front.
jaywalk 5y ago
One feature I really like about my car that I'd never seen before (2020 Explorer) is that the headlights will always return to automatic mode every time you start the car. It doesn't matter what they were set to when you turned it off, and there's nothing you can do to disable that behavior. When you turn it on, the headlights will be on automatic mode no matter what. It's a small but helpful feature.

wcunning 5y ago

This is a huge problem here in Michigan, too. Many cars come with automatic headlights, but many do not, particularly of a certain age, and the LED DRLs seem to be bright enough that people do not realize that they don't have their full lights on. I find this particularly infuriating in ugly snowstorms and the part of the year where the sun sets before 5:00pm... sigh

kube-system 5y ago
My theory is that these cars have multiple drivers. Driver A is used to vehicles with manual headlights and always turns their lights off when they get out. Driver B is used to "everything is automatic" and touches nothing when they get in.
- wcunning 5y ago
  This is very possible -- I had this exact situation with my girlfriend until I managed to get her used to leaving it in automatic mode.

kube-system 5y ago

Cars have too many features. And I don't mean this in a, "I'm a luddite and wish cars were simple" type of way. I seriously think the number of controls on a vehicle (and burden of the owners manual) is so great that it is causing safety issues. My car has more controls for the lights alone than my first vehicle had for everything. Literally. "Automatic" features like headlights were supposed to make us safer, but I think that is backfiring as it is causing cognitive overload and making people complacent.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
nawgz 5y ago
> My car has more controls for the lights alone than my first vehicle had for everything. Literally. As someone driving a 2021 Subaru who grew up in a 99 Integra and an 01 Civic. I don't see this at all? The controls are extremely familiar for the lighting, except my new car has a no-friction option: I turn on the "Auto" setting and it automatically puts on DRLs or full lights for me given the lighting conditions. It even turns on my lights for me when I pull into my parking garage at midday. How exactly could this be made less complex?
- gkop 5y ago
  The Subaru auto headlights work great indeed. Other Subaru smart functionality is crap though. For example, the touchscreen and gauges auto-dimming: literally every time it auto-dims or auto-undims, I have to tweak the dimming level. It would be an objectively better car without the auto-dimming.
  - nawgz 5y ago
    > For example, the touchscreen and gauges auto-dimming: literally every time it auto-dims or auto-undims, I have to tweak the dimming level I have never noticed this, fingers crossed you didn't Baader-Meinhof me. The feature to aim the lights where you steer and auto-dim high beams when traffic is approaching and re-activate them works quite nicely for me as well, so I would consider the headlights to be a great strength of this vehicle. It is crazy to get into my partner's mid-2010s sedan and laugh at how bad the lights are at nighttime compared to the perfectly aimed and calibrated Subaru lights
    - idiotsecant 5y ago
      >It is crazy to get into my partner's mid-2010s sedan and laugh at how bad the lights are at nighttime compared to the perfectly aimed and calibrated Subaru lights On the other hand, that mid 2010s sedan's headlight system will age gracefully - there are no aiming servos to fail or autodim relay output to stop working or such thing. It's just lights with a switch to turn them on or off. Increased complexity also implies increased maintenance and often more troublesome failure modes when something does fail.

cptskippy 5y ago

I've never understood why DRL are only in the front.

jaywalk 5y ago

One feature I really like about my car that I'd never seen before (2020 Explorer) is that the headlights will always return to automatic mode every time you start the car. It doesn't matter what they were set to when you turned it off, and there's nothing you can do to disable that behavior. When you turn it on, the headlights will be on automatic mode no matter what. It's a small but helpful feature.