‘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/AtTheMercyOfThePast 16d ago

I drive your average early 2000s silver compact car, and instead of flashing my brights, I turn off my lights entirely and pulse them on/off.

It sends the message when I literally disappear and reappear.

I will continue doing so till some unhinged driver kills me, but I'll die happy.

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u/SkeletorsAlt 16d ago

Yeah, that’s what I do. Around here in rural central Ohio flashing your high beams means “cop/hazard ahead” so I try to avoid doing that unnecessarily.

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u/HanzG 16d ago

That's pretty standard all throughout North America. Same rule up here in Ontario. Cop or heavy traffic ahead, either way slow down.

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u/0ut0fBoundsException 16d ago

Or deer. Or turn your GD high beams off

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u/clantontann 16d ago

Seriously. I moved to the FL panhandle and I've never seen so many drivers that regularly commute with high beams on. You flash yours at them and they seem oblivious to it. But with the new LED headlamps, they're so damn bright I'm apprehensive about flashing mine because they could just be their standard low beams. They probably get as pissed at getting flashed by others that I get being driven toward with high beams on.

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u/Material-Kick-9753 16d ago

Those new ones are brutal. Believe they are the new HID lights; High Intensity Discharge. Brighter than leds.

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u/clantontann 14d ago

My wife's 2018 Acura MDX has LEDs. The ones where there's like 4 or 5 lenses in each headlamp. Super bright but they're aimed lower than my 2017 Armada that is HID. I know many of the newer Camrys, Mazdas, Acuras, and a few others are just crazy bright now.

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u/AdA4b5gof4st3r 16d ago

Fuck em. If I can’t see then they can’t either. We’ll see who’s a better blind driver.

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u/clantontann 14d ago

Like jousting with headlamps.

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u/AdA4b5gof4st3r 14d ago

exactly.

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u/notlitnez2000 15d ago

In vehicles that use dim high beams as DRL, if the high beams have been refitted with LEDs, then yes. LEDs are either ON or OFF: no half-voltage midway. Thats why some LED retrofits flicker in DRL mode. Illegal in many jurisdictions.

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u/clantontann 14d ago

Didn't know that. Thanks for the info! Explains why my buddy's Nitro headlamps flicker and I always think his charging system is going out. He replaced the factory incandescents with Amazon LED bulbs.

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u/notlitnez2000 14d ago

Many cars with high-beam half-bright DRLs are made dim by a quick pulsing of power. Milliseconds. I have had good results with Auxito LEDs and Sealight LED headlights. I retrofitted a 2008 Honda Fit (combo high-low bulbs) with an early generation of cheap LEDs. The result was “see great and blind everyone else”. The incandescent reflectors in the assembly, and the badly placed lighting elements were the cause. The high beams were electrically separate, but barely discernible. One of the lights failed because the bulb’s cooling fan jammed with road gunk. The replacements were fanless and had better placed elements that coordinated better with the incandescent reflectors. High vs low beams were visibly different. In my vehicles with separate low and high beam, I have left the DRLs stock incandescent, and will remain so until technology overcomes the problem. If you look and make note, 2020+ vehicles are separating DRL from any forward lighting. The low cost Amazon LEDs may be older, less sophisticated technology.

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u/clantontann 12d ago

True. I actually had a 2008 Fit as well. Only changed the color of the headlamp housings but never changed the bulbs. I ran an LED bulb (also fan less) in my motorcycle and the newer LED bulb replacements have come a long way in terms of technology. The one I had in my bike had a perfect cut line between lo/hi beam and used the factory reflector almost perfectly to the stock.

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u/T-MO19 15d ago

I get flashed all the time with just my lows on in my MK 7.5 GTI

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u/clantontann 14d ago

I feel for you. I'm guilty of flashing many cars with the new lights and then I feel terrible for it. You can't really tell they're low beams until you're right up on them

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u/T-MO19 14d ago

Heard that, same reason I don’t flash cars I’m almost certain are blinding me. I’ve also been guilty of forgetting my high beams are on (like anyone else) and feeling horribly bad after it’s too late and I’ve fried their vision for the next couple minutes. But yeah with most cars having brighter blueish lights nowadays it’s a bit harder than when I got my license in 2015 (18yo). Also quite a bit harder to tell if a cop is behind you with the amount of Fords on the road 😂

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u/T-MO19 14d ago

Also sometimes the angle of headlight beams if people are going uphill or over a bump/s is tough

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u/clantontann 14d ago

Life hack: over 90% of police SUVs don't have roof racks on them. . Most sedans have switched to Dodge Chargers where I live and they're pretty easy to tell which and which aren't police.

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u/T-MO19 14d ago

Central PA here, mostly Ford Escapes/Fusions/maybe a few old Taurus as far as unmarked usually go. Most marked in my area are Ford Escapes

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u/clantontann 12d ago

The local Sherriffs run Tahoes and Chargers here, but they're dark green, and the highway patrol run Chargers, Durangos, and Explorers. The unmarked ones have become almost impossible to detect though, we have a silver F150 that from the outside, doesn't even have any special wheels (black with a cbrome center cap) or anything to tell its a police vehicle, and I think they converted confiscated Corvette. That F150 doesn't even have lights mounted anywhere exterior besides the front grill, but they're behind it and are tinted black when they're off.

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u/LightlySaltedPeanuts 16d ago

I’ve started high beaming any car that has those obnoxiously bright new headlights. If I can’t see then neither should they. Car manufacturers should have to recall all of those.