Sometimes I have to drive after dark in my city, and it never fails that if I drive any appreciable distance that I always see at least one person (often more) driving with their lights off. I do not need to tell y’all why this is dangerous. We’re a community of enthusiasts. We know. Plenty of us are driving older cars that predate the tech.
It’s not like they don’t mandate lots of shit already. Seatbelts, head restraints, airbags, and backup cameras are some of the most sensible things ever required for cars to have. Why are automatic headlights not on this list? There also needs to exist a mandate whereby the lights turn on if the driver turns on the wipers. Because if you need your wipers, you need your lights too. It’s common freaking sense.
Your headlights aren’t just for seeing, but for being seen. Ambient light sensors are so cheap that they end up in midrange TVs all the time. I blame the backlit gauges and myriad other interior lights. Ergo, it’s time to mandate automatic headlights. There’s no reason not to.
I’ll get off my soapbox now.
My car from 2006 has daytime runners and headlights that turn on automatically. Either can be turned off at any time with the press of a button.
My 2000 Camry did not allow the driver to disable the auto drl/headlights, only turn the headlights on manually. Every other auto-capable car I had though has been like yours, just an optional setting. That was a fluke at the time, but now it’s one of the valid ways to meet regulation in the US and has become more common. I want to say it was changed in 2019