Daytime Running Lights

[duncerduncs]

14 minutes ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

Euro NCAP is voluntary, and the country of manufacture doesn't make any difference as to whether a manufacturer decides to use Euro NCAP to test its vehicles or not.

Also, the rules are only as good as the year you test the car.  The Prius was tested under the 2016 rules (the good old days!) so is not compatible with the 2020/2021 rules that the Yaris and Yaris Cross are tested under.

[Stopeter44]

17 hours ago, duncerduncs said:

Also, the rules are only as good as the year you test the car.  The Prius was tested under the 2016 rules (the good old days!) so is not compatible with the 2020/2021 rules that the Yaris and Yaris Cross are tested under.

Do you have a reference you can point me to, for the automatic headlights vis à vis NCAP ?

[doug250871]

can the censor be disabled ?

[TonyHSD]

On 12/19/2021 at 3:38 PM, doug250871 said:

can the censor be disabled ?

Anything can be disabled  either with removing the corespondent fuse or physical disconnect of the wire harness., is it ok to do so it will depend on which systems that information is feeding, for the lights perhaps should be ok but for the abs for example it’s not ok as the car constantly monitor wheels speeds to manage its hybrid power train. 👌

[MikeSh]

3 minutes ago, TonyHSD said:

Anything can be disabled  either with removing the corespondent fuse or physical disconnect of the wire harness.

Possibly, but you are quite likely to end up with error codes and/or loss of other functions.

Ideally you'd replace the sensor with one that always gives the reading you want. Fairly simple if it's just a resistance value, but in these days of canbus for everything it could get complicated.

[Cyker]

You could probably just stick an LED over the little dome on the left-side of the windscreen so it thinks it is daytime always  

Only problem with that is the auto-dash dimming (Which *is* genuinely useful) probably wouldn't work any more...

 

[MikeSh]

On 12/19/2021 at 6:46 PM, Cyker said:

You could probably just stick an LED over the little dome on the left-side of the windscreen so it thinks it is daytime always  

Only problem with that is the auto-dash dimming (Which *is* genuinely useful) probably wouldn't work any more...

Exactly. Any sensor that has more than one use will be challenging unless you can modify the system that uses it rather than the sensor - ie. changing settings or logic.

Every car I've had the last decade or so has had things I can set but don't want/need to and others that I really want to change but can't. It's like the manufacturers are just trying to p*** me off 😡

[Cyker]

I think for the Mk4 at least, there is a strong possibility you can just change the stalk to the Type B one, as shown in the manual, which *does* have an Off position! Getting it might be hard tho' - I have no idea what market the Type B stalk is from, what the part number is or if a dealer would even source it!

[stevecrvn]

If the car is fitted with DRL and auto lights and you disable them would this not cause issues with any insurance claims as a safety device has been disabled . 

[Yugguy1970]

DRLs are a legal requirement for any car type approved from 2011.

As these days drls are also sidelights then you wont be able to turn them off and I guess it would be illegal to disable.

[FROSTYBALLS]

DRL's were a legal requirement on new cars with new Type Approval from November 2011, and on all new cars from November 2014.

[Guest]

It was quite foggy yesterday and I encountered many cars with DRLs on and nothing else! Some of these cars were not that old so it's possibly safe to assume they have auto lights. Whether that had been selected in said cars, who knows, but if their lights were on auto it was obviously not apparent because their main lights were off and the driver was relying on that function rather than common sense.

 

[forkingabout]

Auto lights cannot detect fog - the driver still needs to switch the dipped headlamps on in foggy conditions during daylight hours.

I don't know of any vehicle manufacturer auto lights system that can detect fog.

[Trewithy]

4 hours ago, stevecrvn said:

If the car is fitted with DRL and auto lights and you disable them would this not cause issues with any insurance claims as a safety device has been disabled . 

Disabling auto lights would be regarded as a modification and would be notifiable to your insurance company.  I doubt very much that any insurance company would consider this modification and if you used the car without informing them your insurance would effectively be invalid.

[TonyHSD]

That’s what we are talking about, auto not always best therefore Toyota should think to reintroduce off option on the stalk. 👍 What happens in the fog it’s same and for when it’s raining, common sense from drivers is must have not everything automatic and relayed on the car to do it for you. There is one auto function that is critical for todays drivers and yet to be introduced, auto speed limits , once the car reaches maximum speed limit there should not be possible to accelerate further, you know why., because modern drivers simply never watch their speedos or if they do they just ignore it and keep going faster until reaching car’s possibility or end of the road, or perjury their motors should be fitted with wings and take off after that 🤣👍

[Cyker]

5 hours ago, stevecrvn said:

If the car is fitted with DRL and auto lights and you disable them would this not cause issues with any insurance claims as a safety device has been disabled . 

Just to clarify, since their introduction DRLs could never be turned off by the driver -  Even in cars that do have an Off position on the light controls, that does not turn the DRLs off.

Off just means DRLs on, sidelights and dipped/main beams off, which is something us Mk4 owners can't set due to not having an Off position. If e.g. there is a tree above us in high summer on a blazing bright day, the main beams will switch on and there's nothing we can do aside from switching the sidelights on, which isn't a great solution.

Even when parked, if the light sensor is shaded the dipped/main beams will come on while the car is started and on, which is a little inconsistent as, in the summer, if I started the car, the DRLs would NOT come on until I shifted out of Park!

In more modern cars, DRLs will switch off when sidelights are activated, but in original DRL implementations a lot of them stayed on, which they shouldn't (In Dim conditions where sidelights are enough, DRLs are far too bright and dazzle other drivers), but thankfully almost all modern DRL systems extinguish the DRLs when sidelights are on.

[Stopeter44]

2 minutes ago, Cyker said:

Just to clarify, since their introduction DRLs could never be turned off by the driver

I'm pretty sure that my soon to be "old" 208 (MY 2016) has a configuration setting in a menu that is DRLs on/off, but you defo can't turn them on and off on the fly.

[Cyker]

Oh that's interesting... I thought by law they had to be always on in daytime when the car is being driven, so didn't think any manufacturer had implemented an off switch!

 

[Stopeter44]

What you say makes sense, but I know that I have found the option when looking for something else.

I have trawled the manual for the Yaris loads since ordering mine, and I haven't yet seen a configuration for the DRLs, maybe there's something that can be done through Carista/OBD ?

[TonyHSD]

Not in Toyota  cars as far as I am aware of, drl comes on with engine on (ready mode). Some Yaris mk3 could be without  drl if in park and stationary if I remember correctly from previous discussions. My car has drl on always when is in ready mode no matter p or d been selected, btw the drl on many Priuses in the night are lighting the streets of big cities as Uber drivers are taking a rest between busy time through the night shift, 🙂👌 drl can not be switch off but side lights or main lights can. , sorry for newer models that can not, that inconvenient indeed and I believe is the subject of discussion. 👍 

[preperationlaunch]

I honestly can’t think of many situations in dull daylight weather where headlights would be any more liable to dazzle compared to their use at night.

Dipped beams are dipped specifically to avoid dazzling, and you’ll notice that manufacturers like Volvo had always on lights as a feature for decades before DRLs became mandatory.

On vehicles I own without DRLs, there’s a marked difference in your road presence with and without dipped beams on, especially on two wheels. But, I’ve never been dazzled by an oncoming motorcycle or car on dipped during the day, and many modern motorcycles don’t let you turn the lights off at all. 

[Cyker]

And you'd be right - If anything, headlights are just as, if not more dazzling at night than in dim light.

The difference is, in dull light, you can still see without the aid of headlights; At night, you can't, which is what headlights are for - To help you see in darkness. They are a necessary evil, as humans cannot see in the dark.

However we can see at surprisingly low light levels, but not when there is a huge light contrast. This is why sidelights are dimmer than DRLs - DRLs have to be brighter than the sun for other people to see them, but in lower light this is too bright. My Mk4 uses the same light array as the DRLs for sidelights mode - It just cuts their brightness by 50%.

And you're lucky, I'm constantly being blinded by mopeds and motorcycles with their dipped beams on in the day time! And it's getting worse where you have things like a mix of bicycles, some with poorly aimed super-bright flashing LEDs, and some with no lighting or reflectors at all.

It wasn't so bad with halogens, but modern LED-based DRLs and head lamps are just stupidly bright - If I'm behind a clean car, I literally blind myself on my own LEDs - I've never experienced this on any of my previous cars.

I do understand why a lot of people say they can't see cars with only sidelights - If the majority operated at the gentler light contrast level in dim light we used to have, it'd be fine, but just a few people with super-bright lights on triggers a war of everyone trying to get brighter and brighter lights than the next person so they stand out. It's gotten to such a ridiculous level that companies like Audi are fitting literal lasers to their cars, even boasting they are 3 times brighter than LEDs. If they mean 3 times brighter than LED systems like the on in my Mk4 we're all going to go blind!

It's the same thing with why I despise SUVs - When we all had normal cars, you had much better vision and spacial awareness, but as people started getting these idiotic vehicles, it reduced the visibility of people around them, so those people get an SUV, which blocks more people, which spirals on and more and more people keep trying to out do the next person with an even bigger SUV.

 

[MyOpinionIsWorthless]

DRL by law since 2014 in uk

[MikeSh]

2 hours ago, Cyker said:

If I'm behind a clean car, I literally blind myself on my own LEDs

You've mentioned this a number of times but nobody else seems to have this problem ... or at least no-one on this forum has admitted to it. As a long time glasses user I've had many eye tests and mine have certainly changed over the decades.

So is it possible it's your eyes that are the problem rather than the lights?

[Catlover]

I didnt know of problems with DRL until it was raised on her, in other words, I don’t have any problem.  And if my lights are causing me problems due to reflection of someone’s shiny car in front I will drop back a bit, or a lot, as I think fit.