Why do so many people have their car headlights on when it's sunny?

[GraceUnderPresure]

It's getting more and more common, it's been making me wonder for a while whether I should do it too and if so why?

YABU - It's a safety thing and everyone should join in
YANBU - you can't turn them off on newer cars

Automatic headlights

Automatic headlights, but cars now legally have to have 'running lights' which are on all the time

It's automatic - not full headlights but some lights. My car is nearly 10 years old and I can't turn mine off.

Can't turn mine off, it's only the small lights that are on.

Automatic. And yes, safety. It's about being visible to others, not about using lights to see where you're going.

See also: people who drive in heavy rain, snow or thick fog with no lights on. TURN YOUR LIGHTS ON. It's daylight, yes, but you're increasing your visiblity to others. Especially from the rear.

Thanks all - I thought automatic headlights only came on in the dark? My car is 20 years old though so I wasn't sure.

Better that than those people driving in terrible weather conditions with poor visibility and no lights on.

Running lights and automatic headlights (based on light sensors) have been standard in cars for 15+ years.

Completely agree, I guess it's another way modern cars are protecting us from ourselves. To compensate for the people who are obviously too stupid to put their lights on when they should.

I think once some people have them on it becomes and expectation, and it becomes harder to spot those cars which don’t have them on. So it becomes a safety thing.

It's not the fact they are automatic headlights. They are daytime running lights which became mandatory in new cars from 2011. Unlike automatic headlights, they cannot be turned off.

Automatic headlights drive me potty. I live in foggy East Anglia. Far too many cars drive in fog during daylight hours with no lights on because its not dark enough to trigger their automatic headlights, the absolute wombles.

This.

The number of people (I don't see) driving in rainy conditions without headlights when it is difficult/impossible to see them through the spray is shocking.

Headlights often do come on automatically when it’s dark. Independently of this, daylight running lights, illuminated at all times except when the headlights are switched on, have been mandatory on new cars since 2011.

Automatic. I’m happy to have one less thing to think about. I’m far more bothered by the ridiculously bright ones that dazzle.

Oh don't get me started on that! I have yellow sunglasses in the car to help reduce brightness but some lights are dangerously bright.

I have a Volvo it always has lights on. Can’t switch them off.

Headlights on during daytime was/is mandatory in many European countries, regardless of weather conditions. There must be studies showing it can only benefit road safety.

I'm sorry I don't agree with this entirely.

I've seen 20 year old cars being driven by absolute mouthbreathers who like switching the fog lights on permanently, because of the 'scene' and having 'quad lights'. This is in an era before automatic lights.

Most hatchbacks or SUVs, the ones being driven by the kind of people you'd expect to be self-conscious about appearance, seem to have their fog lights on permanently, even in sunny weather.

If the default answer on this thread is "automatic headlights", then surely the manufacturers have SERIOUS problems then if fog lights are coming on automatically on a 4 year old car, during 27 degrees weather and bright sunlight last Friday?!

Or maybe, just maybe, some people are absolute weapons who like to drive around "being visible" 🙄while in reality they just want to look cool by driving with all the lights on at the front.

I get this, but fog lights?!!

Since when did fog lights being on during bright, clear sunshine become a thing?

If the automatic lights are at fault, then we have a serious manufacturing problem.

If however (which is far more likely) it is people deliberately turning on all the lights to look lit up like a Christmas tree, then yeah..... we have a serious human problem of the kind I've grown to expect in this country.

They're called daytime running lights. All new cars will have them and if you do, you have to make sure they work

Our cars have running lights on all the time and automatic headlights that come on when its far lighter than I ever would put on normal headlight. Sometimes they come on when I drive through a shaded tree area near my house.

Foglights must just be due to shitty drivers! Virtually all cars need a manual manouvre to activate foglights so they must have done it without realising it.

Something to be aware of is that daytime running lights may only apply to the front of the car. So the back of your car will blend in with the grim day. Side lights are still preferable as it puts lights on at the rear of the car. I don't know if this is universal but it definitely applies to both the cars we have. 18 and 21 plates.

I don't mind the daylight running lights as such, but have had some frights with people think that means they have lights on the back when they don't and the back of their vehicle is totally unlit in the dark!

I leave my headlights (not daylight running, not full beam, not fog lights) on all the time - because, why not? They don’t blind anyone, but means I don’t have to think about turning them on in fog/lower light than my auto lights deem necessary to put them on.