DRL (Next Best Thing)

[ColoradoReatta]

Obviously this age vehicle does not have Daytime Running Lights as there was no such thing back in the days these cars were designed. But, I just noticed in my 1990 that my fog lamps do not stay on when I turn off the engine. When the engine is on, and I turn on the Fog Lamps switch, the Fog Lamps and the Parking Lights light up. When I turn off the engine, they all go off and when I turn the engine back on they light up again. It appears that it's a safety/energy saving failsafe so that you can't drain your battery if you forget to turn them off. In this way, it would appear that if you just leave the Fog Lamp switch on, it can mimic a Daytime Running Light sort of thing without having to worry about flipping switches...?

[2seater]

It is a drl which was required in Canada at the time. The difference from conventional drl is the tail and clearance lights also activate.

[Padgett]

Does Canada care ?

[2seater]

1 hour ago, Padgett said:

Does Canada care ?

I don't know, but you might notice drl lights on most cars from the somewhat recent past. They were toyed with earlier and were temporarily mandated in the early 2000's until about 2018, when the requirement went away. Our NHTSA stated they could find no correlation for accident reduction with drl in use and almost no new vehicles have them except for the jewelry type of lights they like to make a statement with, while the quality of the actual light output suffers. Strange that motorcycles and other smaller profile vehicles are required to have running lights at all times and yet it doesn't help with mainstream automotive vehicles. Very curious.

[Ronnie]

I've driven with the fog lights on almost since the day I bought my Reatta. 

 

A safety feature I think is useful is the turn signal arrow in the side mirrors on some new cars. They get my attention when I'm beside a vehicle that has them. I like all the automatic braking and the new cruise control that paces the car in front of you, but I don't want to be forced to pay for them if I ever buy another new car. I doubt I could ever trust a car enough to let go of the steering wheel and let the car do the driving like some car companies are advertising on TV.

[Padgett]

BTW Greyhound bus line found that running the headlights on during the day cut accidents...in 1964.