Phantom vehicles
 

You've probably seen them: people driving at night without the vehicle illumination system activated. If you've ever come up behind someone on a dark stretch of road and they don't have their talilights on, it can be a little unnerving. A couple of things contribute to the confusion of whether the lights are on or not. One is the Daytime Running Lights, which light up the road somewhat. But the biggest issue is that most modern vehicles have a dashboard that is illuminated day and night, whether the lighting system is on or not.
In a first for the automotive world, Canada has mandated that the dashboard lights be blacked out when the lighting system is off on all new vehilces. It will be interesting to see if other countries follow suit.


https://www.drive.com.au/news/world-...en-not-in-use/

Yep, I see more and more newer cars driving around at night with DRL's only oblivious to the fact that they're driving without their lights on.

more vehicular darwinism

Yes I see this quite a bit. People need to figure out how there vehicle operates before getting behind the wheel.
If they can't figure it out they should not be driving. Caught a guy that does out HVAC work doing this, his van has lots of signage on it
and when I confronted him when to our work place, he was confused, he thought they were on all the time.

Common issue...aside from user error/ignorance, I partially blame a poorly executed design. I am aware of the functionality, but have caught myself once/twice with my wife's Mazda 5 that I infrequently drive.

With how widespread this has become, we can't blame it solely on the individual...or can we??

Part of the problem might be vehicles like my 2011 GMC .. I haven't turned the headlights on or off since the day I bought it ... it does it automatically. So when I get in other vehicles it's easy to forget ... course I notice the second I can't see ... which is usually about ten feet out of the driveway.

I have a couple other things to add about people that fail to illuminate their vehicles. I sometimes wonder if they trying to conserve energy by not turning their lights on....:noidea:

At the end of my working years I got my class A CDL and drove an 18 wheeler for about 7 years. My pet peeve is that Ohio does have a law that if your wipers are on, the headlights must be on also. Now if your car has daytime running lights the front of the car is illuminated, but no tail lights are on, so basically they meet the letter of the law. Law should be the whole car is illuminated, not just headlights. It's poorly written, and it's a secondary offense, that a cop can only pull you over for non illumination if you have broken another law, I.E. speeding, etc.

On a 4 lane road such as an expressway if it's raining, and you're driving without lights on, a car that blends well with the roadway. (gray, silver, blue, tan) it is almost impossible to see in the spray for an 18 wheeler driver in their mirrors. So if you ever find yourself in that same position, and a semi driver cuts you off by doing a lane change, it's simply because he can't see you in the spray thrown off of 18 wheels.

There used to be a safety slogan for drivers, that is no longer repeated today, "Be safe, be seen", I wish they would revive that slogan today. It would reduce accidents if it was followed.

My 2001 Mercury Marquis has a "Lights on when wipers on" feature. The first time it did it I thought something was wrong with the headlights. Vehicles should also have sensors so when it's dark the headlights come on automatically. Anyone remember the auto. dimming feature on older Cadillac...maybe other models as well?

I'm amazed all vehicles don't have the GMC setup. Four settings, off, parking lights, headlights, Auto. Just leave it in auto and they will always been on when it's dark, and DRL when it's day time. They auto-off about 15 seconds after you leave the vehicle.

We've had four GM vehicles with the automatic lights. The 1998 Olds was the first but it didn't have a manual 'off' over-ride, but the 06 Silverado, 07 SRX and the '15 Express all do. My twins learned how to drive with automatic headlights and when one of them bought a new Mazda recently it took her a few weeks to get use to the idea she had to manually turn the lights on.

Pretty easy for me with my F-150 4X4 truck.
Get in the vehicle, start it up, if the garage door is is lit up, guess what?
I HAVE MY LIGHTS ON.

Tom V.

I have 3 Nissan vehicles that all have auto headlights, and when the headlights are on there is an indicator on the dash and on the overhead console that has a headlight on indicator to alert you that your headlights are on. Very easy to know if your headlights are indeed on.

As of 2021 all the Toyota line that I see here in Canada does not have an OFF position on switch, auto, park on, headlamps on. So there is
nothing left to the driver.

My wife's 2019 Honda CRV has the automatic dimming feature. Both her CRV and my GMC have automatic headlights. I thought that was a standard feature on today's vehicles. :noidea:

Every once in a while I see morons around here driving with absolutely no lights on at night. Most don't even bother to check and see if lights work or not. I followed a woman who had no working brake lights. Another was a guy at night with no tail or brake lights that worked. I pulled up along side and told them, as I usually do if I can get their attention. Only once did the driver give me the finger. And it was a woman. Taking it as a term of endearment I returned the gesture. But used the pinky finger as it's for those that don't deserve the best. I take the middle finger as a compliment. :D LOL

80% use no signal lights. Including County and State cops, State licensed vehicles, and a few US Govt. vehicles.

Besides having automatic headlights, I enjoy the automatic high beam/low beam activation on my prior Cadillac ATS and my current CT4. I wish my Equinox had that feature.

That's a new one on me! I'll have to remember that one Gary!

Right after you figure out and initiate a light switch training class, let's work on re-educating the masses about that little switch that dims the headlights. Seems about half of the drivers in my semi-rural town have no idea about the dimmer switch. I really don't think they have the foggiest idea that the lights can be dimmed. My attitude has become if I'm blinded, there just as well be two of us that can't see.

I am with you on the frustration of people who seem to only use their brights.

But the technology exists to eliminate the problem. Read my post above about the automatic high beam/low beam activation that I've had on my Cadillac's for years.

I've got a little sumthin sumthin for them lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjbJR-StQDw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri6dRcJqqjY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tw9wcpRYU0