I'm sorry you want to give up MY tactical advantage by turning off stealth mode? And let my enemies see me from a few hundred yards away? No chance, buddy.

Even easier: daytime running lights.

I talk about this with my wife once in awhile since it seems to happen a lot more then I remember in the past. My theory is that with the advent of dashboards that are always backlit, even with headlights off, people don't realize that their headlights are off. It can be a bit hard to tell when your interior is lit up and you're driving in an area with lot of ambient light. Most cars have auto-headlights and people just assume they came on and can't really tell that they're not on. So when you flash them they have no idea what the issue is.

So, if you mean automatic headlights, then yes please use them! But I think daytime running lights are part of the problem because they're not the same as headlights, and people don't realize they've got one on but not the other.

daytime running lights vs. headlights

Is it just me or people don’t even know the etiquette around flashing your lights to an oncoming car. It’s either, there’s police ahead or turn on your damn lights.

I do a quick high beam flash for cop or yielding RoW, and lights off/on for turn your lights on.

Somewhat related… it’s irritating how bright some people’s lights are

Could people turn off their lights when they park? Why do you have them on?

Right. Not daytime running. My mistake.

My car has a setting for headlights to be always on when engine is on.

I assume everyone’s headlights are broken so they don’t bother to turn them on or they turn on their high beams.

You know what’s interesting? I’m fully aware of the light flashing trick, but every time someone does it to me I have no idea wtf is going on.

I have automatic headlights. Every time I let someone borrow my car (maybe 2-3 times a year), they turn the lights on and off when they get in and out of the car. So I’m sitting in my car cruising around like a dumbass, assuming my lights are on, and everyone’s flashing at me along the road and I have no idea why. Gets me every time and I feel like a dumbass lol.

Omfg! Yes they're friggin blinding. 😳

The roads around here aren't good enough to rely on the headlight trick I think. So many times I think someone is flashing their lights and they're just going over train tracks, or a pothole, or a bump in the road.

It's really just caution and slow down. Flashing your lights is very appropriate for an object in the road, a pedestrian where there's no shoulder, etc.

Unfortunately, in many cases like this, while the headlights are on, your taillights are not, adding another issue to night driving

People don't. It's crazy, both the quantity and the pure unwillingness to turn on lights, or engage.

I begin with lights flashing, lots, so it can't be mistaken for a dip in the road, then I go with turning my fog lights on and off, then I turn my lights on and off, then I beep, and then finally, if possible, I drive past, making hand signals.

Without fail, it doesn't work.

I was walking down by the library recently and someone was stopped at the red with their lights off and once of the security guys for a restaurant across the street spent a good minute trying to get the driver to turn their headlights on.

I agree. I had to travel for work and rented a car. Hopped in it and the "headlights" came on - actually didn't think about it b/c mine are fully automatic. Too bad they were just the running lights, if someone hadn't caught my attention at a stop light to tell me the rear lights weren't on I'd never have known.

Lmao good luck this is the population that regularly forgets to yield or even look at incoming traffic before turning anywhere.

I've seen so many people driving around without their lights on! But I've also had people get aggressive with me on the road because they percieved my flashing lights as trying to get them to move. Now I shut my lights off for a second and turn them back on, which seems to piss people off less than the high beam flashing

100% I do the same

I didn’t know it was possible, but drivers are still getting worse and worse around here smh

This exact thing happened to me last week 😭 my best friend had moved my car around in the driveway and messed with my lights. Drove home later and had two people flash lights at me and I had no idea why. Got to my back road to go to my apartment and realized they were off. Felt like a complete idiot.

Also I think the lights flashing for cops is a rapidly dying habit/generational thing. I flash more for lights being off or it’s ok to turn.

I have automatic headlights as well, but I keep them on at all times. During the day it just makes the car more visible, so a little extra safety is a good thing.

Do your headlights shut off automatically when you turn off the car? I still have paranoia about leaving headlights set to “on” because I had an older car for years and I made that mistake on a regular basis LOL.

Yes. They have a timer so they turn off after about 30 seconds. Gives me enough time to go up the stairs and in my front door while its well lit.

Also, can we stop putting on the brights to on coming cars with bright headlights? There’s a difference between high beams and just the newer lights. Mine and my wife’s cars come factory with LED lights and we have someone shine their high beams at us at least weekly. I asked the service shop to check the alignment just in case. There’s nothing we can do except turn on our high beams too.

I usually flick my high beams on when people do this to me, so that they realize I didn’t have them on in the first place lol.

Yup. Thinking people are flashing when it’s a pothole or a speed bump gives me constant anxiety about driving at night.

You could change the bulbs.

And when you flash your headlights at someone, flash them on/off, not high beam/low beam. Some of you have blindingly bright high beams.

It's because some of us were told in our youth that if you flash your high beams at a car with no lights on, that car will then chase you down to shoot you, because that's a gang initiation thing.

(The 90's were wild, man)

LED headlights are not typically serviceable.

No kidding? That's annoying.

That’s honestly pretty sad. And you’d think with being in a tech age, we’d have something by to signal to us that a cop is ahead.

Yes. This is definitely a thing my grandmother did years ago when she was teaching me how to drive, and I still do.

Except, I don't warn others about cops on my own street.

I don’t get why people with newer vehicles don’t set their lights to auto-headlights and auto-high beam.

It’s so much easier.

I don't buy into the warning about cops since people have become such aggressive drivers over the years. F*ck that - drive like a jerk I hope you get caught and no I'm not going to warn you anymore. But yes i was taught that too.

Lets play Spot the Karen.

I was driving home the other night from work when it was raining. While going through either Providence or Cranston, I had a police car drive past in the on-coming direction without their headlights on. Sheesh!

That same night... More on-coming traffic... One car with high beams on nearly blinding you, the next car with no lights on, while you're trying to take a left hand turn crossing traffic..

You'd also think that at some point, not having any dash lights on might be a clue. Speedometers, we don't need no speedometers...

I hate autoheadlights and refuse to use them for this reason. Is it convenient? Sure, but it's also frequently rude at dawn/dusk hours. Black/gray cars are reallllly hard to see in side mirrors when it's dusk and their autolights haven't kicked on yet.

Most auto-headlights don't come on soon enough for me whenever I use someone else's car with that feature. I imagine that's why I get so annoyed at other drivers not using their lights at dawn/dusk... their auto-headlight sensors aren't as sensitive as I would like.

Lots of cars have low level always-on dash lights, which is part of the problem cause they can still read their dash alright and might not realize their lights are off.

I see, I tend to lower my sensitivity since my eyes are sensitive to light at night.

A few years back, I actually wore sunglasses at night to see better. Now, it’s more tolerable but I really wish they allowed tinted windshields.

I have had someone get wicked mad at me in a storm on the freeway one time for flashing my lights off and on, not brights. They literally did not understand that they were driving a grey car in a grey storm and were basically invisible.

Radar detector

My rear license plate bulbs are out so I can move like a ghost at night 👻

Silent running

i saw a red hott rod today and I flashed my lights at the car to show my respect

iz there rulzz about that manouvour

I like driving with my hi beams on. It says hello to all other drivers.

Exactly this. Read about this in a chain email once as a kid and have been afraid to flash my lights at anyone ever since.

Turning lights on/off at another driver = turn your headlights on

Flashing high beams = cop ahead OR turn your fucking high beams off

The number of cars I see driving around with their highs on these days is fucking infuriating

Also, if you change your bulbs don’t forget to fucking re-aim your lights! The aim doesn’t stay the same and your dumb ass is blinding people!

99% of the time, cars have separate bulbs/lenses for high beams. If the flashes look like they’re coming from the same bulb and there are relatively few of them, it’s probably a bump. Usually, when people flash their lights, they do it more than once.

Waze

I have Waze but it’s not my primary navigation app. It’s good but I wish it was more native to cars and don’t rely on users reporting.

If only car manufacturers made them by default a part of the car, like safety sensors.

This tho

>and don’t rely on users reporting.

What would you want, Waze (Google) employees monitoring every mile of every road to know when there's a cop taking radar to put it on the map?

Or switch your lights or have them angled more downwards? If it’s happening weekly it means people are literally blinded driving by you… you very very well could cause an accident by blinding someone so maybe you could fix that instead of blaming the people you blind and create a dangerous driving experience for. It’s not our fault you bought that car but it is your fault you are blinding us.

Probably hinting at something similar to lane-keep assist or lane-change assist, where it’s a sensor. Or crash detection. In this case, it’d be a built-in sensor that either scans for police radio with a nearby radius or scans for signals that only radiate off police cruisers and then have a light go off on the dash to indicate that there’s a cop nearby.

Something to that’s not removable.

LED lights aren’t serviceable, these are standard on our cars and not something we added. Also we had the service center check the alignment of the lights to ensure they are correct. I’m happy with the light output, I’m not changing how it was designed to operate safely. Roads here are up and down, if you’re downhill from me of course the lights will be up higher.

Never going to happen.

The police radio detector would always be receiving signal, so then you'd have to have some kind of speech recognition AI or something to figure out if there's one checking speed.

Then if there were a built-in radar detector, it would be illegal to sell in many states.

This is the exact reason that I believe auto manufacturers should remove the off portion of the switch. DRLs are bright enough to confuse people thinking their lights are on when they are not, and they have no tail lights at all which is incredibly dangerous! Auto headlights are foolproof these days, so it makes sense to me to just remove the manual option entirely. What do you think?

Legit PSA