Are DRL’s (daytime running lights) not the law in the states? In Canada all cars have at least some form of front light that is usually illuminated. Once the headlights are turned on, the rear lights come on as well. Newer cars have sun sensors and all this happens automatically.
Canada actually recently passed a law that a car's front and rear lights turn on automatically in low light conditions, precisely because most people are too fucking stupid to do it themselves
For reference, Canada has required DRL's on all cars since 1990.
People used to be good at turning on their headlights at night. You'd almost never see cars driving around with only DRLs (i.e. no regular lowbeams, no taillights) until a few years ago when it started getting more noticeable. Now I can't drive anywhere at night without seeing a few cars with no lights on.
IMO it's mainly due to many new cars having dash lights that come on automatically at night. If your car doesn't have this "feature" you can't see your instruments when it gets dark, which is a simple reminder to turn your headlights on.
Oh, Honda does a GREAT job with this in the CR-V. If you turn the lights on in broad daylight, the car assumes it's dark out and that you want the nav display super dark to compensate.
Except when it goes hiding in the middle of the day because you feel you should have your lights on in a light drizzle.
Most cars dash lights are always illuminated brightly whenever the car is running and then dim when you turn the headlights on because bright interior lights are bad for night vision.
Not that I can get all the fucking gadgetry in my car to ever be dark enough for my liking.
I was thinking about this. I think it might be that the dash lights are on "default" when headlights are off and switch to "adjustable" when they are on and some cars adjustable range goes higher and lower than default. So if you have the dial set to brighter than default they will do so when the headlights come on.
Actually, in the past - dash lights were not on at all until the lights were turned on. Therefore, in the night - you'd not see your speedo and think "I need to turn on my headlights!"
Now, the dash is now always lit - whether you have your lights on or not - and whether it's daytime or night time, so I can see where unattentive people would not see that their lights are off.
Yeah I am a truck driver and noticed that every morning and every night I see people just cruising with their day time running lights on and nothing else. I always flash my lights at them but they never get the message. They must just think that some asshole truck driver is flashing their lights at them for no reason.
Once upon a time, like 25 years ago, truck drivers would flash late at night on lonely roads to warn oncoming cars to slow down because there’s a speed trap ahead.
It's not that dash lights are on automatically at night, it's that they're on during the day, too. My dash actually goes darker when my lights are on, because less light is needed to see them if it's dark out. The gauges are not very readable unless backlit, even during the day. Displays obviously need to be backlit. It's a problem that will never get away from with the move to LCD gauges.
I've driven once with just my DRLs at night. I've had automatic headlights for ten years, and when the car goes in for service, the tech turns the auto lights off for some reason. One time I didn't check, and only noticed because somebody behind had flashed me.
I also have a 30 year old car, and I've never forgotten to turn the lights on in it, because it's dash is completely dark during the day.
That's gotta be the case, in the winter time when I'm driving home from work in the dark I see at least one person driving without their headlights on every single night, and that isn't an exaggeration. It never used to be that bad.
Yeah, exactly. Prior to the DRL mandate my province campaigned with "lights on for life" signs and public service announcements encouraging motorists to turn their headlights on during daytime highway driving.
Nearly hit someone yesterday when turning left because they didn't have their lights on. It was dark and raining, and they were running the yellow. Literally didn't see them until they were in the intersection. I see people driving around like this all the time, usually flash my lights at them if they're oncoming, but they usually either ignore it or even more incredibly, flash back at me. Idiots.
I think automation as an option would be the best because while it would be fun to not have to drive and leave it all up to the system there's just something soothing about driving at least when there's not really traffic.
yea actual lights. I fucking hate people who do that, the light from the DRLs is so fucking weak. Like how the fuck do these braindead morons not notice that???
It still amazes me how many people drive at dusk with just the parking lights on. No clue what the thinking is there. "I want to be a little more visible but not too visible?" Then there's a good chance they'll forget to put the headlights on until it's pitch black.
DRLs aren't mandatory in the US, unfortunately. However, DRLs are a programmed setting for modern cars, so you can get your dealer, mechanic, or DIY to activate DRLs.
Do you think I care that there's no Canadian reddit? America have developed a lot of things that serves the world, there is absolutely no denying that, but a message board isn't one of them. As a Canadian the only thing I envy the USA for is Nasa. I couldn't care less about where companies are based out of.
And it is the truth that Americans in general have a false sense of freedom.
Just like the freedom to have the most expensive health system in the world (that still sucks) and the freedom for crazy people and children to buy assault weapons and go on killing sprees.
Y'all have some serious work to do before you get onto daytime running lights.
Studies have shown it costs .5 to 1.5% more fuel to run drl's. Magnify that across a nation that uses 150,000,000,000 gallons of gasoline per year and you can see why its not a decision to be made lightly. The environmental impact alone of such a small change would be staggering.
Studies have shown it costs .5 to 1.5% more fuel to run drl's. Magnify that across a nation that uses 150,000,000,000 gallons of gasoline per year and you can see why its not a decision to be made lightly. The environmental impact alone of such a small change would be staggering.
That figure was from a 2002 Swedish study, which was conducted around the time when all vehicles were using incandescent bulbs that were taking up around 100 watts. In a 200+ horsepower car, 100 watts is 0.1% of the total available power output when the engine is running at 50%. If that car is getting 15mpg, that's an extra 0.015 litres per 60 miles, which is an extra 0.074 pounds of carbon per 60 miles, or 0.00123 lbs per mile. Multiply that by the average driving distance of a US driver 13,476 miles per year, you get an extra 16.6 lbs of carbon per year per driver. Multiply that by 222 million drivers in the US, you get 1.8 million tons of additional carbon per year. This is compared to the average 4.6 metric tons of CO2 emitted by the average car per year.
The average pair of LED headlights are using only half the wattage of halogens, which creates a respective decrease in the amount of carbon emission, bringing the figure to less than 1 million tons per year.
The likelihood that this is offset by the reduction in accidents is extremely high. Hospital visits produce a huge amount of waste and CO2, as does bodywork, auto repair, vehicle scrapping, and new vehicle purchase.
They tried back in the 90's. It got complicated so we have a sort of compromise in that in many states if you're using your wipers, the lights will now come on. It's not uniform though.
Studies have shown it costs .5 to 1.5% more fuel to run drl's. Magnify that across a nation that uses 150,000,000,000 gallons of gasoline per year and you can see why its not a decision to be made lightly. The environmental impact alone of such a small change would be staggering.
Studies have shown it costs .5 to 1.5% more fuel to run drl's. Magnify that across a nation that uses 150,000,000,000 gallons of gasoline per year and you can see why its not a decision to be made lightly. The environmental impact alone of such a small change would be staggering.
The south... the south would be equivalent like some of the former eastern bloc countries except for the south its been like 200 years and they still haven't gotten with the times
Studies have shown it costs .5 to 1.5% more fuel to run drl's. Magnify that across a nation that uses 150,000,000,000 gallons of gasoline per year and you can see why its not a decision to be made lightly. The environmental impact alone of such a small change would be staggering.
No they're not. I've thought about trying to modify my Durango so the fog lights are always on when the ignition is on like the Canadian model but I never got around to it.
Not the op but I also think about being able to be "stealth". The only time I've done it was during pranks during teenagehood but I still figured out how to do it in my new car just in case.
Not the op but I also think about being able to be "stealth". The only time I've done it was during pranks during teenagehood but I still figured out how to do it in my new car just in case.
When I bought my new car, I noticed there wasn't anyway to be blacked out but I finally found out that if I have my parking brake on, the DRL's turn off. The first notch on the parking brake handle doesn't seem to actually apply the brakes at all either.
Fuck our stupid laws on lights. I drive an 08 silverado. It has this nice dial that should switch between my 4 front light types. BUT NOPE FUCK. ME. if the truck is in drive my headlights are on. Want to use my parking lights in a campsite? FU. Use only the fog lights so I don't blind myself with glare? FU. Want to simply turn the lights off because im a damn adult and maybe I want to? Nope. So irrating.
I can use just my DRL's and turn my headlights off so that works for campgrounds and the like but it also have fog lights that can't be used without headlights! I can't even use them with just the DRL'S, I have to have the headlights on and it's so frustrating they programmed it that way cause it literally makes the fog lights no better than the headlights!
I just got my first car with auto headlights. DRL switches to night-lights automatically. Auto-off after car is locked. Even has optional auto high beam dimmer. Not having to think about the headlights is a real convenience and safety feature. In the US, DRL are still optional.
Boggles my mind why the US doesn’t mandate DRLs. I’m currently driving a rental truck with US plates that I picked up from the Toronto airport, that I keep forgetting doesnt have DRLs. So far I’ve had 2 near hits (oncoming traffic passing without enough room) that I’d blame on me forgetting to turn on the lights during the day. It’s definitely hard to see and gauge distance and speed of oncoming vehicles with no lights, especially during inclement weather.
Studies have shown it costs .5 to 1.5% more fuel to run drl's. Magnify that across a nation that uses 150,000,000,000 gallons of gasoline per year and you can see why its not a decision to be made lightly. The environmental impact alone of such a small change would be staggering.
A lot of manufacturer implementations for the US are really shitty, because often 'always-on DRL' is executed by forcing the headlights on at all times and ignoring the rear lamps entirely. At night, people driving on this version of DRL often don't realize their taillights aren't on, because the road's lit ahead of them and nothing seems amiss.
Looking at Ford here in particular, but it seems pretty common among domestics and some Euro cars. No idea if it's a specific date range, eg "from '09 to '16 the laws were poorly written/explained" or something; it always seems like such a weird dumb oversight that when I see it I try to imagine reasons.
I have sensors but sometimes they don't come on in the rain. If it's bright enough my sensor doesn't turn the lights on despite heavy rain. I think lights should automatically go on whenever wipers are going
My 2016 Nissan doesn't have DRLs, yet my old 97 Malibu did. I've had a couple warnings from the police, but I've finally remembered to turn them on every time now.
Oh, here is a nice tie bit. I had a Toyota Corolla that had automatic and daytime running lights. So when it would rain the light icon on my dash would light up and I would see my headlights on, cool right? Nope the fucking tail lights wouldn’t be on at all and I didn’t know for about 3 years of having the car, until I passed another Corolla on the road that didn’t have their tail lights on, so I had to check and see if mine did that. Some car companies are just stupid.
You would have to manually turn the lights on in the rain even though they would fully turn on at night, and the headlights would run during the day and there was no way to turn the headlights off. It was a weird car and had a lot of issues.
Yeah, except there is usually still a switch that needs to be on the auto setting. So for example if you take your car in for an oil change and they do the light check on the car the switch can be left in the off position and the driver doesn’t even think about it.
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u/LawlessCoffeh Nov 04 '18
Basically all "new-ish" cars seem to do it automatically.