Daytime Running Lights ???

I recently purchased my first vehicle which has Daytime Running Lights.

I think the Daytime Running Lights are a great safety item.

My questions:

Since the Daytime Running Lights feature would not be too costly to add to all vehicles, why don't ALL new cars and trucks have the Daytime Running Lights as standard equipment?

What are the PROS and CONS of Daytime Running Lights?

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If I'm not mistaken, most new cars do come with some sort of DRL (low power high beams, amber lights, etc.) as std. equipment.

I just leave my headlights on. A long time ago I'd get people flashing theirs at me as if I'd forgotten, but people seem used to it now, haven't seen that in a while.

There are a lot of new vehicles with them, Canada requires them on all vehicles IIRC. Some people claim that they cause a distraction and others claim they waste fuel by putting a tiny extra load on the electrical system. I don't see much benefit in safety, I still get cut off and pulled out in front of just as much as with a non DRL vehicle.

I don't like them.

Safety-wise, they do nothing in the daytime to prevent accidents.

Since 99% of car owners don't read their manual, they drive cars w/DRL's, but at night, don't turn-on the car's headlights (thinking they're already on with the DRL's). The problem is that the DRL's don't turn-on the tail lights. So there's always cars driving at night with DRL's, but no tail lights, making for a possibly dangerous situation.

--dan

I have nothing against the concept of DRL's. I do, however, strongly object to the way they're being implemented and legislated (mandated).

I can offer my recent experience having purchased a new Volvo V70 R, which comes with HID's for regular lights and halogens for DRL's.

- There's only one light switch, which only has the traditional 3 positions 0-1-2, which leaves no way to turn off all the lights (including the DRL's). Sometimes you'll want them off if, for one example, you don't want people driving by to notice that your car is idling in your driveway.

- To meet the US DRL spec, Volvo took their Euro headlamp unit (which does not have DRL) removed the very bright separate high-beam lamp & reflector, and used that place for a lame low-wattage, dull-reflector, DRL. That left the US owners with only an HID lamp that's repositioned with a motor for low & highbeam use. It's not a good high beam at all. It's what the Euro unit uses as only the broad beam part of their broad+long lighting. Oh, and it uses a separate software control from the ECU so a US owner can't put a Euro lamp unit in the US car and have it work.

And losing the dedicated high beam for DRL is only part of the trouble with these lights -- Because there's only the HID's running on the high setting there's also the mandated self-leveling for HID's which for high beams results in not being able to see down an undulating road at all. (grrrr)

If there were a separate, dedicated DRL outside of the usual lamp assembly and a separate switch so I could turn the whole mess off or on however I choose then all would be well. Since it's being stuffed into the same assembly and I've also lost control of choosing how I want my lights to be on & set, I object.

I also object to its being mandated by law. A driver should know when it's prudent to have their lights on and act accordingly. Taking that decision out of their hands seems to me just a tacit approval that it's legally okay to be a braindead driver. ("Nothing wrong with this braindead driver; It's the manufacturer's fault for not hardwiring the headlamps on.") Sorta along the same lines of why I totally object to anti-cellphone laws and anti-reading-newspaper-while driving laws, etc.

I concur with Binky's crankiness. I like to play astronomer on occasion and nothing makes you less popular than wrecking all your buddies NV when your DRL's come even though you don't have the light switch on.

My car shuts them off when the handbrake is applied, so I usually pull it up one click when creeping out to the exit of the observing area.

One of these days I'll put in an over ride switch.

Cheers,
Bob

ditto on what binky said; trying to protect us from ourselves leading to asinine laws and regulations. however i do find DRLs to be effective driving thru light/shadow, like tree lined avenues early morning/late evening, other than that, dunno. very few cars come w/ a DRL-off switch, too. At least Volvo's have all the lights on all the time (tail and low headlamps) as part of DRL (at least that is what it appears to be), so they can leave it be and drive day and night. but the front lamp only scheme will have drivers sans tail lamps in the evening.

I don't see where the DRL can hurt anything. My Chevrolet Tracker and department issued Chevrolet Lumina both have the DRLs. Both vehicles have sensors that switch from DRLs to regular headlights in low light situations or when night comes.

I think all (not certain) GM products have DRL's. Most have sensors that turn the head and tail lights on and off. Some others also have a feature where you flip the headlight switch from auto to off and it turns off the DRL's until you cycle the ignition switch. The switch is spring loaded back to the auto position. Very nice feature if working on a military base or similar and have to approach a sentry at night. Others have different procedures for turning off the DRL's. Some won't turn off at all.

I think DRL's are great. So many cars and trucks are a neutral color so they blend in with the surroundings, DRL's help. The flicker of headlights you see in your peripheral vision before you pull into an intersection may save your life

There are many rules for a car we could argue are an infringement of our rights. Airbags, DRL's, safety belts, speed limits, stop signs and lights, one way's, school zones and so on. Laws require them all and they are all an infringement on our rights. No doubt government tries to control too much of our lives but when someone decides traffic lights or school zones are an infringement on their driving privileges they put everyone else's rights on the back burner. I also think motorcycle riders shouldn't be required to wear a helmet. The chances of them killing themselves are high but their chances of killing someone else because they weren't wearing a helmet are low. We all think we are above average drivers. That means 50.1% of us are wrong. This means we need the rules for the other idiot or is that idiot me? (Please don't answer)

I have to agree with Diesel. So often another vehicle will blend into its surroundings. Running lights probably prevent more accidents than we realize.

I think DRL's are great. Ever drive on a winding road surrounded by trees that cast a shadow on some parts of the road? It's those situations where cars without any frontal illumination just "disappear" into the shadows, as well as joggers and cyclists. If you've ever been in that situation, you know what I am talking about.

My car (96 Chevy Monte Carlo z34) does not have DRL's so i simply drive with my headlights on, ALWAYS. By doing so there is frontal illumination and the tail lights come on as well. We have a 00 Chevy Impala that has DRL's and they are pretty much fool proof. They come on when the ignition is on, when it's dark enough to warrant the use of headlights, a light sensor turns off the DRLs (which are the high beam bulbs run on low power consumption) and turns on the headlights. I have never seen a car at night driving around with DRLs. DRL's really arent THAT bright, certainly not bright enough to mistake them for your headlights at night...

I don't think it's logical to assume that Volvo removed the highbeams solely to replaced them with DRL's. The same high beam unit is OFTEN used as DRLs by simply applying less voltage or current to the bulb. The reasoning behind this is that you put more hours on the high beam bulbs instead of your low beams so that the lows dont burn out as quickly. Do you have the information that the highbeams were removed so that DRL's could be put in?? Many European car designers have gone to the bi-xenon design which is what you have in your Volvo. Here is some information about why they've gone with the bi-xenon design as opposed to separate high and low beam units.

Our Volvo 850 has good implementation of DRL.
Car on, headlights on--unless you set to parking light. Only problem is if headlights are 'on' than so are the dash lights, so we switch them 'off' during the day to spare the dash lights. Impossible to drive around at night with just the DRLs on since the dash is dark.

Unfortunately, the only way to have the car on and the lights completely off is to disable DRL. Fortunately that can be done via a tiny switch, which is turned with a screw driver.


Our Saab has a **** poor implamentation of DRL. With fuse 35 in DRLs are on and the headlight switch is useless. All 3 positions are full headlight and dash light (When car is running, when off parking lights function normally). So we plucked fuse 35 out so that we could at least have more control over the lights, but unfortunately I told my father the headlights would always turn off with the car so he didn't have to worry about that. He left it in parking light position (Headlights when car is on, parking lights when off) and killed his battery when he had only had the car 1 day /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif

just to clarify, most regs as far as cars go are good and well, it is the implementation that leaves something to be desired, whether DRLs or airbags or whatnot. In the end, one of our cars has DRLs, and the other is driven w/ headlamps on, so i guess we know which side of the fence i end up on /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I think GM, Suzuki, Volvo, and Saab (maybe BMW and Toyota?) are the only car companies that have Daytime Running Light as standard equipment on all their cars, SUVs and trucks.

Why does Canada require Daytime Running Lights on all their cars?

I wonder if they have any safety studies to back up this requirement?

ya, i know the honda ody comes with DRL in canada markets, not in usa. i think it has to do w/ northern latitudes, since this whole thing started in scandanavian countries, where they can benefit greatly due to low altitude sun (vs here in the southwest)

DRLs are a great safety feature IMHO.

I have a black car, and I think DRLs makes it more visible. The landscape is quite green in New Zealand so DRLs provide some sort of contrast against that background.

We have DRLs on one of our three cars, the Prius. I think they are a good idea. Can't hurt anybody, and they only increase your visibility. It's not like I feel unsafe without them though or anything.

There are rare occasions when you would like to turn them off, such as those mentioned or for me, the one time I went to a drive-in movie, but realistically this is not a problem for most drivers. The other criticisms don't make any sense (to me at least). The safety advantages have been statistically proven by numerous studies. They save lives and property and are therefore a great thing. I installed them on my Ford and I drive my Nissan with headlights on. They will not make other drivers more courteous, but that is beyond any realistic expectation of their performance.