r/Cartalk 16d ago

‘Automatic headlights’ don’t work in fog? Safety Question

About 40-50% of the cars we passed on the road today had no headlights on or only had the dim side lights. Do automatic lights not work in fog for these modern cars? Seems super sketchy

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u/ShelbyVNT 16d ago

There is also the possibility that the automatic lights are turned off. Every car I've ever drove with automatic lights had a switch setting for auto. Turn them off and the lights stay off. Then they might forget they have to turn them on.

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u/zelvarth 16d ago edited 16d ago

Shops often turn them off so they can work on the car in the garage without the (on modern cars often stupidly bright) lights going on. Sometimes they forget (or don't bother) to put it back into auto when they return the car. So it's possible to not realize that immediately until it's really dark (yes, I realize it's still your fault).

Although that does not explain 40-50% of cars not having lights on. The first car possibly does not even have automatic lights and the car in the last pic even had the fog lights on. OP might be exaggerating a bit because of internet rage.

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u/ChikinTendie 16d ago

I turned them off once and my manager raged at me after the customer called back and said how “unsafe” it was. That being said every time I work on a car I put the lights on auto if the car has it, even though the only “unsafe” thing is you when you can’t tell when your lights aren’t on

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u/zelvarth 16d ago edited 16d ago

Sorry to hear that, in my experience it's pretty usual and I would not dream of complaining about it as a customer.

It's really just a consequence of cars getting so automated, you get downright conditioned to not think. And some people really really seam to want putting the human out of the equation, arguing with the auto pilot in planes. Problem is, pilots get trained to monitor stuff properly, because it turns out to be hard - and most of us aren't pilots.

Yes, in the olden days, you were taught to occasionally check tire pressure, oil levels or whether your brake lights still work. But that was simply out of necessity, you knew your car would not do it for you. Today we expect a warning to come on if something is out of the norm.

Okay, enough yelling at clouds...

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u/tOSdude 16d ago

Those aren’t fog lights, those are DRLs

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u/bigbear_mouse 16d ago edited 16d ago

I have a 23 pug and you can't turn off the headlights/drl, the "off" setting is the "auto". You have one setting to dim DRL and turn on tail lights that won't turn the beams on, but that's it. There is also a configuration unique to the auto mode, that is the dash light NOT dimmed and head/rear lights on, usually it is what turns on when driving through fog. At least in my car it usually works because it is clear that the auto rain/wipers works together with the auto lights sensor (when it is a bright raining day and everything is on auto, the lights turn on along with the wipers).

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u/Tre1es 16d ago

This is also a strong possibility, I’ve seen over the last 10 years or so a large number of cars driving at night (with street lights) with no lights on that were obvious candidates for having auto lights, either it’s been serviced recently or the driver thinks they can do a better job themselves