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Why don't automatic lights work on the rear of some cars?

Driving in poor visibility today and noticed lots of cars with no back lights on, despite the fact that their front lights were on. Various manufacturers, mostly newer cars.
Is this a function of auto lights? If so I certainly didn’t realise it.

Can you throw any ‘light’ on it??

Asked on 4 March 2024 by Eddie phillips

Answered by David Ross
Cars fitted with automatic lights should illuminate correctly according to the lighting conditions, assuming they are functioning correctly and the driver has the lights set to the automatic function. Cars fitted with daytime running lights will provide some degree of foward lighting at all times, and if the instrument lighting is illuminated it might fool the driver into thinking that their dipped headlights are illuminated when they are actually running on DRLs alone.

We would recommend using the automatic lighting function at all times in order to avoid this situation.
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