Are auto headlights dangerous ?

[WALLOP]

I have come to the conclusion that auto headlights on cars are dangerous. They are far too sensitive on the corolla and will come on when just driving under a bridge on a bright sunny day. If there happens to be a car waiting at a junction just passed the bridge they may well feel that you have flashed to let them out when you would probably be totally unaware that the lights even came on. The resulting crash could cause a death as well as an insurance nightmare as to who was to blame.

I have adjusted the lights to minimum sensitivity with very little to no discernable change. What do other forum members think? 

[Roy124]

I think the other driver should realise that your lights signal your presence and not permission to proceed. 

I was once T boned by a 10 tonne truck who had been flashed by the car behind mine. 

[Kental]

The lights do stay on for a good length of time so look less like flashing than if they went off as soon as the dash display goes back to bright.

There would be no insurance issue at all

[TonyHSD]

Indeed, 

anything auto on modern cars except transmission can cause a lots of issues. The biggest problem is that drivers relay too much on modern tech and automation in cars and expect the car to do everything for them, well if this is the case then why not book an Uber drive!? 
Yes automatic lights can cause critical situations as above, however we should never flash at anyone to ask them to do anything, flashes only to show our presence at certain conditions, any other flash by any car are illegal and not helpful. In England people just flash for everything. 

[fourbanks]

i have my headlights set on automatic to include the main beam at night on. Seams to work well and comes off main beam on cars approaching in the distance and then goes back on again 

[Trewithy]

I also have mine set to -2.  I didn't think it made much difference so I set it to +2.  At that setting they were more on than off even in bright sunlight, so I am now on -2 permanently.

My auto high beam is off.  I got feed up with getting flashed by on coming cars because the lights hadn't dipped.  I've also been blinded by cars coming towards me when their auto dip hasn't worked.  It's strange that some find it works perfectly (or perhaps they just assume it works perfectly) and for others it doesn't work.  Maybe its because where I live you are either going uphill or downhill, not many roads on the level around here.

[TonyHSD]

9 minutes ago, Trewithy said:

I also have mine set to -2.  I didn't think it made much difference so I set it to +2.  At that setting they were more on than off even in bright sunlight, so I am now on -2 permanently.

My auto high beam is off.  I got feed up with getting flashed by on coming cars because the lights hadn't dipped.  I've also been blinded by cars coming towards me when their auto dip hasn't worked.  It's strange that some find it works perfectly (or perhaps they just assume it works perfectly) and for others it doesn't work.  Maybe its because where I live you are either going uphill or downhill, not many roads on the level around here.

That’s what I am talking about 👍👍👍

. These systems does not work properly on any car any brand and model. I do travel 200 + miles per night every night and I can tell you that almost all cars with newish bluish headlights are going on high beams and cause so much trouble. , plus the drivers standards seems kind on the lower side these days. Every single night I got blinded by those cars/drivers, it’s not very pleasant at all. The worst of all are those that can change light pattern and especially if they drive behind you at dark country lanes, the feeling is like some children are playing with powerful torches behind you and straight into your side mirrors, and unfortunately these are not auto dimming and you can understand what I mean. Auto lights 👎

[Ian.S]

Headlight flashing is a warning, just like using your horn, not an invitation to move. So the only person at fault would be the one that assumed it meant the latter. 

[WALLOP]

Has anyone asked when having their car serviced if the auto headlight feature could be disabled and just revert back to using manual controls. I know that the auto headlight and auto high beam may be linked in some way but i would be quite happy to do away with both as i think my brain is more capable of deciding when these are used than a computer chip. 

[Roy124]

Odd, my Corolla has an on/off switch.   You must have high beam selected before Auto will work. 

[flash22]

Just use the stalk manually ?? Never had an issue with auto lights, if you flash someone it's a high beam flash not just a dipped beam

no, you can not disable it, in fact it's a safety feature

 

Not sure what you're going to do when you find out the car is tracked and can do over the air updates - the mothership is always watching

[Hybrid21]

I find my auto headlights do not come on early enough, eg in heavy rain, etc and I have to turn them on manually.

I didn't think you could adjust the sensitivity ?

[Yugguy1970]

Never had an issue with automatic dipped beam.   Not read of any issues with using this functionality.

 Don't use auto main beam as it never seems to react fast enough.

[Rhymes with Paris]

1 hour ago, Ian.S said:

Headlight flashing is a warning, just like using your horn, not an invitation to move. So the only person at fault would be the one that assumed it meant the latter. 

Quite true It is,in the highway code anyway.

But as Tony says people flash for everything now.

Near here is a church, and when they have funerals on, sometimes they are heavily attended and the road outside has illegally parked cars all over it for a good distance, aswell as a full car park.

So returning home one day, I was blocked on my side by these cars,so had to wait for oncoming traffic from the roundabout.

I admit to flashing a car that was waiting for me to let them first (retired not in a hurry) that would make me in the wrong.

But instead of a ticket, I got a wave of thanks and a cheery smile from the driver the battenburg liveried car,it had a sign on the front saying POLICE.🚔

 

[AndrueC]

4 hours ago, fourbanks said:

i have my headlights set on automatic to include the main beam at night on. Seams to work well and comes off main beam on cars approaching in the distance and then goes back on again 

I've noticed any issue spurious flashing but I don't trust the auto-dip feature. It seemed a lot better on my Jazz.

[Gerhard_Corolla]

2 hours ago, Trewithy said:

I also have mine set to -2.  I didn't think it made much difference so I set it to +2.  At that setting they were more on than off even in bright sunlight, so I am now on -2 permanently.

My auto high beam is off.  I got feed up with getting flashed by on coming cars because the lights hadn't dipped.  I've also been blinded by cars coming towards me when their auto dip hasn't worked.  It's strange that some find it works perfectly (or perhaps they just assume it works perfectly) and for others it doesn't work.  Maybe its because where I live you are either going uphill or downhill, not many roads on the level around here.

What type of highway illumination has your area?

 

Where I live is absolutely none, not even occasionally cat's eyes and the automatic high beams function like a charm...

 

I've never been near to blind incoming traffic on every type of road, but maybe the absence of other light sources helps the camera to isolate other vehicles.

[AndrueC]

I will say that I've never been flashed so my concern over the auto-dipping might be unjustified. In theory the car can calculate the beam dispersal more accurately than we can. It's quite possible for a car to be illuminated by your headlights while the driver is not actually being dazzled. It's the same way you can shine a flashlight at someone's legs (or if it's a focused beam) their chest without dazzling them. Distance also reduces dazzle.

I don't know whether I should applaud Toyota for accurately modelling their beams or Honda for being more cautious. But I will say that I felt a lot more comfortable letting my Jazz take care of it than I am when driving my Toyota so it's one of the few black marks against my Corolla.

[Clive Parnell]

3 hours ago, AndrueC said:

I've noticed any issue spurious flashing but I don't trust the auto-dip feature. It seemed a lot better on my Jazz.

I agree the auto dip is sometimes sluggish, and I didn't have that problem with my Honda Civic 

[Cyker]

5 hours ago, WALLOP said:

Has anyone asked when having their car serviced if the auto headlight feature could be disabled and just revert back to using manual controls. I know that the auto headlight and auto high beam may be linked in some way but i would be quite happy to do away with both as i think my brain is more capable of deciding when these are used than a computer chip. 

 

5 hours ago, Roy124 said:

Odd, my Corolla has an on/off switch.   You must have high beam selected before Auto will work. 

I asked about this for my Yaris, answer was no.  

It's really annoying as there is no Off, only Auto, Sidelights, Main Beams. Worst is I *know* there is a stalk for the Mk4 that has an Off position as it's in the manual, but I've been told it won't work on mine and they can't order it anyway as it's only for different countries.  Booo.

Had to flick it to sidelights today while ploughing through the rain as the light sensor got confused and kept alternating between DRLs and Beams. The light-levels must have been right on the threshold of when it decides its dark enough to change.

Really wish it had an Off - The Auto is such a PITA, esp. when you're waiting in the car at night and want to listen to music or keep the HVAC on or something - Beams just turn on and only alternative is to manually switch to sidelights. Makes it impossible to be parked inconspicuously in Ready mode at night.

Auto-dipped and auto-highbeam are not linked; If you have your main beams on manually or auto, the auto-highbeam will 'work'.

I tried it out while travelling on unlit country roads and it was pretty rubbish; It's ability to recognise an oncoming car was very inconsistent so it often didn't dip the beams in what I could consider good time, and I frequently had to override it to avoid dazzling the oncoming car.

 

[Roy124]

The OFF  is a button low on the right switch bank.  There is a beam level control too.   For the Auto to work the stalk has to be set to high beam. 

[Cyker]

I don't mean for the auto-highbeam, I mean for the headlamps!

 

[Ian.S]

I agree with Roy. The switch on the dash stops the lights switching on automatically. 

[2badmice]

On 8/17/2022 at 12:56 PM, WALLOP said:

I have come to the conclusion that auto headlights on cars are dangerous. They are far too sensitive on the corolla and will come on when just driving under a bridge on a bright sunny day. If there happens to be a car waiting at a junction just passed the bridge they may well feel that you have flashed to let them out when you would probably be totally unaware that the lights even came on. The resulting crash could cause a death as well as an insurance nightmare as to who was to blame.

I have adjusted the lights to minimum sensitivity with very little to no discernable change. What do other forum members think? 

What bridges are you going under where there are exits under the bridge?

 

Never have I ever assumed lights on means out you come.  

[Trewithy]

On 8/17/2022 at 9:42 PM, Roy124 said:

The OFF  is a button low on the right switch bank.  There is a beam level control too.   For the Auto to work the stalk has to be set to high beam. 

That is for auto high beam.  There is no Off switch for the automatic switching On/Off of the lights, it is controlled by a light sensor on the top of the dash, passengers side, bottom of the windscreen.  I have set mine to the minimum sensitivity but they still come on passing under bridges or overhanging trees.  However I have seen it occurring on other makes of cars so it is a wide spread phenomenon.   

[Cyker]

Yeah it's common enough now that people have just accepted being dazzled is a normal part of driving  

I do feel bad for anyone on the receiving end of my Mk4's LEDs - I still keep beaming myself in the face when I go to get something from it at night, because the main beams just turn on when I unlock it remotely. How something that bright can be legal is beyond me!