Lolxa

*Disclaimer I know on some variants of Mercedes there's a "off" switch, but they all have automatic settings*

So recently with the warmer weather, I been driving late at night when its almost pitch black, my car knows when to turn on its head lights and tail lights when its dark enough. But recently I've been noticing newer generation cars of 2015 to 2017 vehicles driving with no lights on, besides their LED DRL!

The other day I was driving through some heavy fog that you could barely see a couple meters in any direction on a 3 lane per side highway, and pulled beside a 2016ish KIA that had no on lights at all, you could barely see him because of his grey paint. Of course I honked and flashed my high beams at him, because that's just dangerous for other drivers.

I was just wondering why newer car's don't have sensors somewhere like the dash that scans the light received from the sky and automatically turns on the lights when needed for every new vehicle as it would be very simple implementation.

And to further more, I am seeing commercials on for the Chevy Silverado "Now comes with automatic high beams when there is no vehicle in front of you while cruising down the road, in the all 2017 Silverado"

Or Subaru commercial where its like "Deer in the head lights, deer out of the head lights, deer in the head lights, deer out of the head lights, in the all new 2017 Subaru", basically head lamps that move in parallel and from input of the steering wheel.

To conclude is German engineering far superior to any other car manufacturer?

blegthbloo

I think that's just early adaptation of a LUXURY car brand... my Infiniti had active headlamps in 2008, and I know of Lexus (and Toyotas, in Japan) with zone air conditioning (although the cars in Japan have the oscillating fans which are AWESOME... haven't seen that here yet) since the 90s.

As for the auto-headlamp feature, some people can't be bothered to learn new features in their cars when they upgrade (as it's just a tool to get from A to B for most people), so I'm sure many of them are still used to switching the lights on or off as needed, and don't put much thought into whether they have auto lights or not. My girlfriend never used cruise control in her 2013 Honda because she didn't know she even had it! That gets on my nerves (other people on the road not using cruise control) more than them not having their lights on... but it's the same concept; they don't know or care to know of these convenience features their cars come standard with these days.

So in conclusion, newer cars probably DO have those sensors, but people just don't use them or know about them at all. I think there's legislation to make it mandatory to have auto lights in new cars anyway.

tresean1

You're kidding, right?

raja777m

It just that some human beings are stupid enough not to put the option to "auto" mode, so the car will take care of the lights.
On the interstate, I've communicated with so many drivers to put their headlights ON, On the roads where there is no street/interstate interstate the road is dark enough. Those drivers still weren't able to figure it out why they can't see properly. I usually drive next to them, turn off my headlights and turn on again, I do it 3-4 times until they understand, else, I'll turn on my cabin lights and try to communicate with them.

These are adaptive high beams you're talking about. Yes, looks like German engineering is ahead of its times. Now rest of the bunch following the suit.