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Daytime Running Lights for cars

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Simon:
I'd prefer manual, my car is ten years 12 years old and the automatic version used significantly more fuel according to the manual. With me at the controls I can get a good 10% more economy than the average driver

thakidd:
My Honda 2005 has the manual twisty knob setup. I do not like this method because I may leave my lights on while leaving the vehicle if I do not pay attention or hear the annoying beep when exiting the car. I am pretty good about turned the lights on, when needed, as I have never had an always-lights-on car.

I also believe that the always-on setup is a bad idea. Screw the wack-job environmentalists and auto safety people for a moment. Why would I want my bulbs running down faster in an always-on setup than would in the manual way? I would have to buy bulbs more frequently. That is just a bad idea for my wallet.

Therefore, the only system that makes sense is one that only turns them on when needed. It satisfies my pocket book and it better satisfy the wack-jobs.

That btw is how you save the environment while not pissing off normal people. Get on it HONDA!

Meanwhile, I might look at hacking my current setup!

scrat:
Always-on lights rule is a way to save money...and lives. It's just a safety matter.
I was skeptic, when I started to see the first motorbikes coming from Austria that had their lights on during the day, but now that I've seen the difference I have to say it's far better. I accept an added cost, because I know we all are avoiding a number of accidents. From an energy/money point of view, how much does it cost to change a new car because of an accident?

About the fact that light bulbs are burning faster (in the last few days I changed two of them), I think that a more careful voltage regulation could make them last much longer. Even if I turn them on manually after motor is running, and turn off before stopping motor, they usually burn at turning on. I think that adding a soft start and protecting them from overvoltage could make a big difference, although this is only a guess.
Moreover, I see that the lamp that always goes down is the normal night light (which I must use also durign the day), even if it is connected in parallel with a little one. Law allow to use a weaker light for daytime, which I don't have, but some new cars have. The logical guess is that this weaker light would have a longer life.

Zero999:
Using LEDs is the obvious solution, at least only for the automatic day time running lights. Halogen or HID can be used for the manual night time running lights.

Perhaps all headlights should be automatic and turn on when the ambient light level drops below a certain point?

Frangible:
DRLs would be OK if they came with an auto-on feature.  With today's bright dashboards and non-automatic DRLs, I see plenty of people driving around with their lights off (no tail lights).  The DRLs are plenty bright for driving in traffic, so the driver never knows his lights are off.  I'd also like a manual-off feature (other than pulling the parking brake) so I can dip my headlights at an oncoming motorist - it used to be the standard signal for "you first" when meeting at a one lane bridge.

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