Modern cars, and indeed all cars ever, since the history of cars, have been equipped in one way or another with some sort of illumination.
So why, over a century into our species’ career of driving do we still not know how to use our blooming headlights?!
In the past week I’ve been out on the roads each night – not dusk or dawn when it might be excusable – full-on, dark-as-molasses nighttime. Moon, stars, the whole lot. And on every single trip I’ve encountered at least three people with no headlights or taillights on, sailing blissfully down the highway totally unaware that other people can barely see them.
Then, when you pull up next to them to tell them to turn them on, they flip you off. Or you pull up behind them and flash your lights a little, hoping this will make them notice – and they brake-check you. Now I’m talking about flashing your highbeams as that can be dangerous and is pretty aggressive. But surely, if someone behind you is turning their low beams on and off behind you rapidly every few seconds it might make you think, “Hmmm, something must not be quite right with the world around me, oh look – it’s my headlights! Thanks friend!”
But it doesn’t. On only one of those dozen or so occasions has the person actually realized what’s going on and turned their lights on.
Muppets.
So who do we blame for this incredible oblivious idiocy?
Well first, the drivers. Too absorbed by their latest Instagram post or shouting at a cloud (because old and young people are equally represented in this group of morons) to actually turn on the headlights before they take off. One wonders how they remember to buckle their seatbelt, or turn on the car at all such is their obvious preoccupation.
So yes, the drivers are clowns. Turn on your lights, guys, it’s not that hard.
But modern cars shoulder some blame too. And, so do legislators.
First for the legislators – and their damned daytime running lights. Now I’m a fan of DRLs – to an extent. I’m a believer in having your lights on during the day, it increases other driver’s ability to see you on the road. But why have some sort of mezzanine solution? It’s 2016. We have modern lights that burn with low energy and the bulbs/LEDs can last for eons.
There’s no reason not to just turn the full lighting system on permanently. Having a needless two-stage solution is not only a pain for manufacturers but it’s confusing and stupid. And why on EARTH wouldn’t they mandate the taillights come on at the same time? Why? Because they’re idiots too. This is a bad solution to a simple problem.
Second the manufacturers: The dashboard is now illuminated at all times which removes a visual cue for the driver to turn their lights on. That’s a problem.
The symbols for the lighting system in the dash are confusing too, fog lights, DRLs and headlights all have a symbol that lights up when they’re being used, and the symbols are all about the same. It’s understandable drivers would think their lights are on when they aren’t based on the symbols shown to them.
But manufacturers are also missing the boat on the whole lighting system itself. Automatic lights are a fail, because they need to be opted into. Not only that, but the symbol for when they’re on and not on is vague and poorly defined and automatic lights are not always reliable. Why again is this system so needlessly complex?
It’s long past time for car builders to simply wire the full lighting system to the key. If the engine is running, the lights should be on. It’s that simple.
And if for some bizarre reason you can’t do that, add a sensor that turns the lights on. We have sensors for everything now. Inside temp, outside temp, humidity, windscreen moisture content, O2 levels in the cabin/engine/gearbox/trunk/hidden smugglers compartment. We can turn the wipers on automatically when it rains, lock the doors as soon as we take off, tell when there’s a passenger in the seat, and even pre-tension the seatbelts in the event of an imminent collision – probably one caused by some halfwit with their lights off.
Hell, we can probably measure the chemical composition of your fart and identify the culprit if we needed to.
So how hard would it be to have a little light sensor in the windshield that’s hard wired to the car’s ignition. Oh wait, we have that! It’s used for the automatic lighting system. But that’s only on if you want it to be on. Why? Who knows?
Ultimately while we could mitigate stupidity with nanny systems that make sure our lights are on at night we shouldn’t have to.
It’s really very simple: When it’s dark turn your lights on, moron.
