I'm sure you are aware that, with the increasing automation of many car functions, many modern cars have an Automatic option for their lights such that the sidelights and headlights come on and turn off according to how the car's own sensors judge the ambient lighting conditions. My girlfriend has a VW Golf, which has such an option. She always drives with her lights set to automatic, whereas I always prefer to select manually the lighting I want. I was recently in convoy with my girlfriend, she driving behind me in her Golf. I was keeping one eye on her in my rear-view mirror, as we were driving a route unfamiliar to her. There was a chap parked by the side of the road, indicating to pull out and waiting for a gap in the traffic. I passed him, but noticed in my mirror that just as my girlfriend's car reached him her headlights suddenly came on. My first thought was that she had flashed him to let him pull out, but she carried on with no change in her speed. I rang her immediately (yes - we're both on hands-free, before you ask!) and she had no idea her lights had come on; indeed, they soon went out again. As it happened, the parked car either didn't see her lights come on, or judged her too close to risk pulling out anyway, so nothing untoward happened. However, he could just as easily have seen those lights come on, assumed he was being flashed, and then pulled out straight in front of her, with the obvious consequences. Regardless of the rights and wrongs of the unwritten protocols that have built up around the flashing of headlights to mean different things, clearly when a car takes it upon itself to turn its own lights on there is a huge potential for misinterpretation. I would be interested in your views, not least as to the legal standing of either party should a collision have arisen under such circumstances.