The dangers of DRLs 4605

Perhaps debating with knowledge beyond your own experience on the subject would be a good reason? Just a suggestion. You just might find subject matter contained there that supports some of your points, if you would bother to take the time to look for it. There actually is material there you might could use in rebuttal...and I've handed it to you and you haven't used it. Try searching and gaining knowledge beyond your own individual observations...it's quite enlightening and often surprising (if one's mind is open), I butture you.

Having witnessed your qualifications, I thought you already won that job!

Uh....documents are maintained on the "document management system". The name is a hint as to what it's used for...it manages the documents. The ones I refer to ARE indeed maintained there. Since it maintains information on thousands of topics, it's not hard for most people to understand that the acronym-topic "DRL" may not be promenently displayed on the main page. However, the document management system has this nifty little search feature that can be quite helpful to find what you want. Give it a try.

I am a "reader" too (your term). Since I'm not the Op making the claim, I only contributing to the discussion, just like you are. My experience and external knowledge just happen to support the Op's initial comment...yours doesn't. That's fine. Perhaps we need 223rem to pony up! ;-)

All I can say to that perhaps is "ditto". Although I don't know how "wild" either of our claims are. We're just stating what we believe or have come across. I will say that 35 years of driving and over a million miles during that time with zero accidents...it can't be too bad (knock on wood).

Not to change the subject, Oh what the hell....perhaps you may be interested in this link if you also think ABS is so good.

In my particular case, I've used controlled braking as a optional form of directional control during emergency maneuvers. ABS takes that control capability away from me. I prefer to have full control of the brakes...locking wheels if a controlled skid is what is required to get extra directional control to get out of a sticky situation. One can't momentary lock the wheels when needed if the car has ABS. Personally, I believe them to be safety negative...but all I can show here in this case from research is that ABS systems are "safety nutral" (no benefit, but no detriment either). DRL's however, have some safety negative aspects to them....at least the way they are imlemented. BTW, look up "Perot & Prowler" on the site I gave you. But I warn you, it's a several hour read.

I obviously understand like you do. So your words "unlike you" is missplaced. My ability to tell what vehicle lights were doing is exactly how I discovered that auto systems were not reliable under daytime fog-snow conditions in particular. Or did you miss the fact that that is how I understood what was happening.

By the way, *you* are the one that claimed "most" people didn't know if their car was equipped with DRL's, or if their lights were on or not etc. Not me. Now you claim the opposite?

I agree with you, to a point. However, apparently bozos primarily buy GM vehicles. People driving other brand vehicles pulling into the parking lot typically had their lights on (all of them, not just DRLs) on foggy mornings (some exception, of course). I submit that the people are not the problem (unless you believe that more bozos buy GM brand vehicles than other brands...which I don't believe). I submit then that it's the lighting control implementation that GM uses that is the core problem...it is the only common demonitator here. You disagree...fine with me.

I've never owned a car with instrument panel lighting that was bright enough to tell if illuminated or not in bright daytime fog-snow weather conditions. However, one can tell if their radio display has dimmed (buttuming one hasen't turned them to the full bright detent or looks at the radio display frequently). For many cars, there is no sure-fire internal visual aid to know lighting status during daylight hours...typically dash lights are simply too dim to see in those conditions. IF your car turns on it's lights and you can immediately see that your dash has lit up as a result, it's waiting WAY too long to turn the lights on.

No arguement from me to that statement. :-)

You are the one that suggested that, given what I and others posting here have observed with a fair number of GM vehicles, that the auto system needed to be serviced. Now you are saying the opposite (again)?

BINGO! You are correct, of course. The problem is that calling it automatic is incorrect because of that. A better name might be "twilight control" or something more realistic to it's capabilities and technical limitations. The word "automatic" implies the wrong thing to the people that own the car....it implies that it's a totally hands-off system..never needing manual intervention, which is quite far from the truth.

At dusk-dawn-twilight, I would tend to agree with you. At dark of night, it's a wash. During the atmospheric conditions that limit visability during bright daytime situations, I disagree very strongly...it is far less reliable than the typical driver is (at least the drivers that drive a car with totally manual controls so that they are used to being in complete charge of the lights).

I don't see much difference between the two. Both are dangerious stuations. However, when DRL-Auto equipped cars are more likely to have the tail lights off, I believe that increases risk unnecessarily. (the HLDI data and insurance loss data shows higher rear-end colisions with DRL equipped cars demonstrating that added risk is real). Fortunately there are a people working on fixing issues like that (supposedly). The fix will likely require a different DRL design and implelentation AND very different auto headlamp control technology (that actually works properly...IF that is even possible)

I believe he did address you directly. I sure don't defend the outburst, and have stated as such here (did you miss that too?!). Daniel does know his stuff however. No one can take that away. His credibility on the topic surpbuttes either of us, that's for sure!