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Comment by josephcsible | Hacker News Reader

> BMW currently requires car owners in some countries to pay roughly $12 per month to access a safety feature called “High Beam Assistant,” which automatically turns off a car’s high beam lights when it senses another car to avoid blinding other drivers at night.

> “Safety should come standard,” Wallace said of adaptive headlights. “Some automakers might think that those are simply a convenience feature, but there’s a demonstrated safety benefit.”

This is the second-worst example of this kind of thing I've ever seen. The only worse one was gating air bags (yes, the kind that save your life if you crash) behind a subscription: https://hackaday.com/2021/05/18/do-you-really-own-it-motorcy...

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High Beam Assist is a dangerous anti feature imo. Kind of glad for it to be gated behind a paid subscription, saves having to turn it off.

I’ve driven various cars with this feature and they never turn it on and off when I would.

I’ve nearly been crashed in to because a car at a junction thought I was flashing them to pull out, as I was doing 60 mph, and they did.

(Also, I’m assuming the automatic turning on of the high beam is included in the paywall, not just the turning off !)

Confusing scenarios like you mentioned are why highway code rule 110 says you should only flash your headlights to let drivers know you are there, not to convey a message, and rule 111 says never assume flashing headlights is a signal inviting you to proceed.

Obviously, it's not your fault that someone else interpreted the headlight as an invitation to pull out. And indeed, it's probably one of the most widely ignored rules in the highway code. Nevertheless... it's still the other driver's fault. I've personally had it where other drivers think I've flashed them out, but I had actually just gone over a bump in the road.

(I'm assuming you're British because you say junction.)

Interesting, do you mind sharing what makes you've experienced it with? My new '22 Subaru is my first experience, and if anything, they are off way more than I would like.

Ford, Kia, BMW, Vauxhall

I don't think it is a safety feature, it is a convenience feature. Any driver can still turn down the brights and any reasonable one will.

It is a safety feature for the people in other cars being subjected to high beams.

As an aside, one option I like to use to get people behind me to turn down their high beams is to orient the side view mirror so the high beam goes back to them.

I get how high beams work, and hate how some people don't turn them down.

That said, I still think it's a convenience feature because turning down your brights is something that everyone is already capable of doing and legally obliged to do.

Very similar to assisted driving features that control tailgating. Should every car with assisted driving capability have to enable it?

Comfort is a safety feature as well. You need to be awake and able to focus on the road.

Saab had a funny one for this - there were 3 vents in the front of your dashboard, but one always blew cold air no matter what, so that in the winter, you could point it on your face. Heat cranked and no warm fatigue... a beautiful thing.

Antipatterns are the worst.

I think BMWs have this feature still. The centre vent has a separate temperature dial.

Saab also had the "night panel" feature where when night driving you could turn down the non-essential dash/cluster lights to avoid vision fatigue. I miss cars like that.

My 2022 Nissan Versa has that "high beam auto-dim" feature as standard. I love it - as a conscientious driver I'd always manually dim, but it's a PITA on a curvy road with little forwards visibility where you are dimming/undimming a lot - nice to have it auto.

Incidentally - the 2022 Versa so far seems to be a great car. Lots of software features that might be considered "luxury" come as standard.

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