AIBU in thinking if so many people really are this stupid, a device ought to be fitted in all cars

[janey68]

... to automatically switch headlights on when its dark.

I popped to the supermarket yesterday evening after dark. I mean, early evening but properly dark- not borderline twilight. Obviously the car park itself is well lit, but I was really shocked that walking from my car to the entrance doors I saw four, yes FOUR, drivers leaving without switching on their lights!

One idiot in a range rover actually started moved forwards out of his parking space as I walked in front. I could see that someone was in the drivers seat, I paused momentarily but as his lights were off I assumed he was waiting for someone- until he suddenly pulled forward. I glared at his headlights and threw my hands out as if to say what the fuck?! and he did actually switch them on. The other 3 cars I saw we're driving at quite a speed through the car park to the exit (onto a main road!) blithely unaware that they were a total menace to pedestrians. One switched his lights on when a customer waved frantically at his lights, but god knows about the other two... Presumably they got as far as pulling out on the main road and jeapardising more lives before having the gumption to turn their lights on

I find it pretty shocking tbh because it really isn't THAT hard to remember that when its dark you put on your lights. Before you move. Not half way out of your parking space, or half way to the exit but before you move.

And if it is that difficult to remember then surely some automatic device to turn on lights or remind the driver should be compulsory in all vehicles? If I saw 4 cars do this in one car park within about 3 minutes, i presume many people are being a menace countrywide

Snatchoo I drive an 'average' car, quite nice and modern but nothing spectacular, and my dash lights up even if the lights aren't on, so it's not strictly true to say that the dash will alert you.

As it happens, I don't think I've ever forgotten to put my lights on, but I can see that it could easily happen.

the reason I described my car was just to point out that it's not just super fancy cars that light up without turning the lights on. Older cars haven't done it though.

So, the car park was well lit. It sounds like you would have walked in front of him in daylight so whether he had his lights on or not is irrelevant. Perhaps you should be more careful when walking in front of cars in a car park.

My car does automatically switch headlights on when its dark anyway.

My last 3 or 4 cars have had automatic headlights. I'm getting a new one next week, it's one of the things I looked for, although I don't rely on it. I more often than not put them on myself before the automatic lights kick in.

my dash lights up whether the lights are on or not. I sometimes have to check the wee headlights icon is lit up as I am not sure if my lights are on or not.

Lol I said the car I walked past was a range rover. The other 3 driving without lights weren't!
But funny to see the reaction from the range rover fanatic is that the pedestrian must always be in the wrong!

Really- does it matter what the car is? I was simply stating a fact there but if it upsets you, then mentally re write it as 'fiesta' or 'focus' or whatever. The point I was making is that driving without your lights on after dark is the fault of the driver, not every other road user in the vicinity. And that if nowadays with the increase of brightly lit multi storey car parks, the longer supermarket opening hours and all the other changes, perhaps this is an increasing problem and the car manufacturing industry needs to respond accordingly?

I forget all of the time, especially where it is quite a well lit area with streetlights.

Perhaps I am stupid.

This will happen in time. A much shorter time than you expect, probably. Driving is going to become a lot more automated.

Owlcapone- it wasnt daylight. It was dark: that was my point. I would have paused and waited if a driver looked ready to move off in daylight ( though strictly speaking I suspect a driver would be in the wrong anyway to start to drive without checking for pedestrians in front or behind. I'm not talking about walking in front or behind an already moving car- I'm talking about a car which is stationary)

I am not a range rover fanatic, I just hate snobbery about people who have money/cars etc. Actually I drive an Escalade which you may look down upon, I sympathise with people who get so het up over what other people do or don't do, it must be a very stressful existence.

I always wondered why "daytime running lights" were listed as a positive in vehicle specs.

The only problem with having an auto setting on lights - or at least on our car - is that if you've turned the setting back to dipped beam, there isn't a warning tone that you've left the lights on after switching the engine off and getting out of the car.

Last time I did that, the battery was flat the next morning, and the breakdown people won't come out for a flat battery, and it cost us €106 for someone to drive 5 miles from the garage in the next village with a portable jump starter.

Also, I've found on the auto setting sometimes they come on going under motorway bridges which can be a bit of a nuisance.

I can see a good argument for them - I don't see the problem with bridges, either, really - there's a long one you pass under near where I live, and it's got signs up to tell you to use dipped headlights at all times.

My car beeps at me if you remove the key from the ignition and the lights are still on, so I don't see why that couldn't happen with automatic cars.

One problem for car manufacturers is that different countries may have different rules, and even if they adapted a model for a particular country, it doesn't stop one from driving it in other countries.

I have a friend who now lives in New Jersey, and she says they have a rule of the road there that if you need to have your windscreen wipers on, you also have to have your lights on - I think that's quite a sensible rule. (I think it means when it's raining, rather than because you've just used the washers to remove the bird poo that landed there.) But it's not a rule everywhere.

Come and live in Denmark OP!

I could probably do 90% of my night-time driving without needing my headlights to see where I'm going, as there is enough other light around. Most of the time headlights make little difference to what I can see.

Janey - I assumed nothing! I asked a question, hence the question mark at the end of my first sentence.

You said you saw someone in the car, hesitated and then carried on walking.... maybe the driver saw you hesitate and assumed that you had stopped!

I just don't think I would walk in front of a car with a driver and running engine. In car parks I wait, or cross behind them. Being the soft squishy part of an auto : human collision I prefer to take extra precautions.

As a driver I accept that I make errors occasionally, as do all others. Not switching lights on is quite low down on the catastrophe list.

I could probably do 90% of my night-time driving without needing my headlights to see where I'm going

But lights aren't just about you seeing where you're going - they're also to enable others to see you.

I think the point is that if you don't need them to see where you're going, you won't be reminded to turn them on.

Surely they must have been oldish cars? Mine is 16 months old and always has the lights on (side) and goes on properly when needed. I have to tell it when it is foggy which annoys me a bit as sometimes it isn't clear when I need them on and I had heard you can be fined for having fog lights on when unnecessary.

mine is 2 years old and doesnt have auto headlights. It depends on the make/model of the car not the age of it.

Automatic headlights would cause issue when it comes to Dogging. Yabu

Owlcapone- it wasnt daylight. It was dark: that was my point.

I never said it was daylight. You walked in front of a car that was about to pull out in a well lit car park. My point was that you sound like you would have walked in front of it had it been daylight.

If the car park was so well lit would automatic headlights have come on inside the car park?

But you would have had the same problem in the daylight OP. You stepped out in front of a vehicle without properly checking the drivers intentions, and he pulled forward without checking his surroundings. Both parties were at fault.

I may be mistaken but I thought headlights weren't a legal necessity in street-lit conditions? About 15 years ago, my headlights failed in a 40 mph street-lit clearway. I flicked my hazards on while searching for a side road to turn into and regroup. I met a police car coming in the opposite direction, and, via a shouted conversation through wound-down windows, one of the officers told me off for driving with hazards on (fair enough, I panicked a bit) and informed me that I wasn't legally required to have my headlights on in the current conditions/visibility.