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Comment by usaphp | Hacker News Reader

> According to the NTSB, a witness had come across the stopped CR-V prior to the collision and noted that neither its taillights or hazard lights were illuminated

I’m shocked by how many people drive at night with daylight running lights in US, they seem to be completely oblivious of that, even when I stop next to them at a traffic light and try to tell them - they fail to understand that daylight lights don’t have a rear light

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I sometimes wonder if the daytime running lights do more harm than good, my making it harder for people to realize their lights are off.

That said, I don’t know why automatic headlights aren’t standard at this point. My base model Toyota from 25 years ago had them. It doesn’t seem like any car made in the last 20 years should require drivers turn on their headlights when it’s hard.

Possibly because early auto headlights were annoying and then there was backlash? I've got a 2003 s-10 with auto headlights, and it's reasonable, until you want to turn the headlights off (which is required when driving onto a ferry, very important at drive-in movies, and maybe there's some other reasons). There's no user visible switch, you just have to toggle the dome switch 10 times and the truck beeps to acknowledge. If this was my first vehicle with auto lights, I would have avoided it in future vehicles; but I got the cars below before this one (used light truck, because I needed a light truck and nobody makes light trucks anymore / I'm not putting enough miles to justify a new purchase anyway, unless it replaces an existing csr)

I had a 2007 Ford and a 2011 VW without auto lights at all. My current 2014 Ford and 2017 Chrysler do have auto lights, but it's the last position on the light dial: Off, parking lights, head lights, auto. So you can easily turn them off when you need to. Might be nice to have a chime and warning text for 'lights not in auto' on start / at intervals, too. Because driving off a ferry during the day, you don't always remember to set it back to auto until the next night driving.

My old Toyota didn’t have an off either. I had to turn the car off once just to turn them off in a certain situation. That seems like an easy fix, like you mention. No reason to abandon them completely.

I had a 2016 VW with them and every time I took it to the dealer for service they’d turn them off and I’d have to set it back to auto. I’m sure it was done as part of their testing, but it seems like a horrible default state to set them back to.

I agree that some kind of warning when they are off, maybe a light on the dash, would be good.

> I had a 2016 VW with them and every time I took it to the dealer for service they’d turn them off and I’d have to set it back to auto. I’m sure it was done as part of their testing, but it seems like a horrible default state to set them back to.

Probably engaged in the shop and they didn't like headlights in the eye.

The Mach E has auto headlights with the same setup you describe. It’s a 4 way dial. Off, auto, parking, on.

Every time you start the car it’s in auto.

I’ve found it to be a perfect system. On the other hand a family member’s car has it but acts more old-school. It stays at whatever you last set. Last set to off? Stays off. Makes it easier to forget.

Sounds good, although I tried to find a picture by searching and instead found many reports and a special service bulletin about needing a switch replacement because the switch would turn on by itself. Whoops.

There was some sort of bug around it that would affect some people, mostly in the lights not turning off as expected when you turn the car off, IIRC.

It never happened to me so I’m not sure.

Daytime running lights (which are now mandated in many countries) and headlights are distinct, separate and independent from each other – the former are not as intensely bright (and are oftentimes LED contour light or a separate, dimmer globe – at least on cheaper vehicles) and the latter are activated by a sensor when the ambient luminosity drops below a certain threshold «on top» (so to speak) of the daytime running lights.

I thought that requirement was added with a recent infrastructure bill but I can’t find any evidence. I must be mistaken.

To bad. It would help a ton.

I leave my headlights set to "auto." Since I have a cheap-ass subie, they work well. Quite binary, and no frou-frou.

I understand that more expensive "smart" headlights are problematic; especially at dawn or dusk.

IME it's not people with their lights on auto that are the problem, it's people who just haven't turned their lights on. Around dusk it may be that it was light when they started driving, and they haven't been paying attention.

When I'm driving I can occasionally communicate the problem successfully by flashing my lights, but I'm usually on a bike, and it's almost impossible to get it across visually or audibly, and so they stay dangerous.

> they fail to understand that daylight lights don’t have a rear light

As someone who drives in the UK, I didn't know this was a thing. Front and back lights are on at the same time.

That is not always true for Daytime Running Lights.

I've had situtions where I normally leave headlights on auto and service people turn them off and I don't immediately realize it.

I wish headlights + taillights were required to be always on, or at least on by default.

What are "daylight running lights"? Is that the same as parking lights?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daytime_running_light

For a car that has DRL enabled, you’ll be able to tell that the car’s engine is running by checking to see if head lamps are on.

It’s especially useful check for (stationary) cars during the day when you are at a distance where the engine’s sound is inaudible.

YWWV. Our DRLs are not enabled if the transmission is in park.

Do you mean without DRL?

No, he means what he said. You shouldn't drive at night with only daytime running lights. You need to turn the headlights on because they are brighter but more importantly because that turns on the taillights too.

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