Automatic Headlights separate topic

[Paulwhitt20]

What do other new cars have? Is it down to some legislation that says all new cars must not be able to be driven without the lights on if it is dark?

[edam]

I looked at a Nissan Note and its lights could be switched off. I will be looking at Kia,s tomorrow and will see how they work.

[John Ratsey]

I was on some rural roads late yesterday and had opportunity to see the auto main beam in action. Honda appear to have got this feature working very well with it capable of distinguishing between a bright reflection off a sign and an oncoming light. However, I'm still wondering how it would cope with a smaller oncoming light, such as a bicycle, when a courteous driver would dip the lights.

Given the generally good performance of the auto mainbeam it's clearly technically feasible to improve the logic behind the auto headlights if only Honda would be inclined to do so. They should start by adding an option to modify the linkage to the rainfall sensor -  perhaps heay rain only - and turn the lights off after no more than one minute after the heavy rain has finished. The summer shadow problem should also not be too difficult to fix if Honda is motivated to address this.

[ColinB]

Honda appear to have got this feature working very well with it capable of distinguishing between a bright reflection off a sign and an oncoming light. However, I'm still wondering how it would cope with a smaller oncoming light, such as a bicycle, when a courteous driver would dip the lights.

In general, I agree this does work quite well in most situations, being very quick to react when a headlight or tail light comes into view, or if you drive into an area with streetlighting. But it doesn't work for occasions when a driver would dip manually out of courtesy, eg a cyclist or a pedestrian, a car waiting in a side road to pull out, or when you can see the "loom" of oncoming lights before a car actually appears. And I had a worrying episode when the lights suddenly flicked up to main beam despite there being oncoming traffic followed by a panicky few seconds trying to work out how to dip them again, because the switch is already in the dipped position ! So, like most of the electronics, you need to treat them as an aid and be prepared to over-ride if circumstances demand.

On the vexed question of whether the lights are too sensitive, I honestly haven't noticed this. Most of my commuting has been early or late, or in miserable weather, when I expect the lights to be on anyway, there haven't been many occasions when it hasn't been obvious why the lights are on. Over the Christmas period I did a couple of long trips starting in daylight and going into dusk and many other cars had their lights on before the Jazz decided to light up, in fact I was starting get a bit concerned that perhaps I had another software glitch that wasn't going to turn the lights on at all.

[culzean]

But it doesn't work for occasions when a driver would dip manually out of courtesy, eg a cyclist or a pedestrian, a car waiting in a side road to pull out, or when you can see the "loom" of oncoming lights before a car actually appears. And I had a worrying episode when the lights suddenly flicked up to main beam despite there being oncoming traffic followed by a panicky few seconds trying to work out how to dip them again, because the switch is already in the dipped position ! So, like most of the electronics, you need to treat them as an aid and be prepared to over-ride if circumstances demand.

I sometimes despair of all this 'automation' on cars,  You would actually think car companies are trying out systems for when driverless cars (heaven help us) are intoduced.  Driverless cars will open up a can of legal worms.
1- if the car crashes who is at fault,  the car maker - the software or the occupant (owner) ?
2 - can a person without a driving licence or a drunken person be in the car on their own ?

I  bet hackers will have a field day playing  grand theft auto with real cars.
Terrorists will be able to use cars like road based cruise missiles to carry explosives to destinations of their choice.
Will the police (or crooks) be able to stop any car by scanning licence plate and pressing stop button on their remote control.
What will stop vehicles doing stupid things like driving into deep water on flooded roads (how will their sensors distinguish water surface from tarmac,  and know how deep water is).

I know we have some bad drivers around but I would rather share the road with them than with a car programmed by a geek who writes computer games for a living.  What will happen if car computer decides to update and reboot on the move ?

Will Autoglass be put out of business because every car will have a Windows 'screensaver' ?

[VicW]

I have just bought a 2011 EX CVT which has auto headlights and the switch has an 'off' position so what was the reasoning behind doing away with the 'off' position on the new model ?

Vic.

[ColinB]

I have just bought a 2011 EX CVT which has auto headlights and the switch has an 'off' position ...

The Mk3 switch also has an off position, the problem is that it is spring-loaded so that it always returns to the "auto" position, you can't leave it in "off". So:
- if you try to switch the lights off when moving, the switch goes back to auto and they stay on
- you can switch them off when stationary, but again the switch goes back to auto so they come back on when you move off
- the only use I've found for this off position is to over-ride the "see you home" feature that keeps the lights on after you've parked.

If the older model didn't do this (and judging by people's comments on here, it didn't) then it sounds like a deliberate decision on the part of Honda's engineers for reasons unknown.

I'm not finding it a big deal, but it seems to be a personal preference thing.

[John Ratsey]

I even tried temporarily fixing the switch in the off position, without visible effect. This suggests that the action of turning the switch to off is basicically a request to the computer to turn the lights of, which it will only do if various other conditions are OK (eg the car is not moving).

My own hypothesis is that Honda gave us whatever had been developed for the US version (which doesn't have DRLs). The linkage to the rainfall sensor is mentioned in the handbook for the US version and has evidently been carried over to the UK version even through it is not mentioned in the book. I have found the light behaviour at this time of year the auto headlight operation to be very acceptable. It's the lights coming on a bright summer's day due to a passing shadow or a few raindrops that annoyed me.

[culzean]

Sounds like even our cars  are now joining the nanny state which doesn't trust us mere minions to decide when things should happen - next thing will be a device you have to blow into before car will start.

Cars are getting more like windows software, your computer does things you don't want it to and then doesn't allow you to stop it, auto updates cannot be switched off on windows 10 and that is why I went back to windows 7.

[VicW]

Cars are getting more like windows software, your computer does things you don't want it to and then doesn't allow you to stop it, auto updates cannot be switched off on windows 10 and that is why I went back to windows 7.

If your windows system is 64bit there is a work round available that turns auto updates off. Search 'How to turn off Windows 10 automatic updates'. It doesn't work for 32bit systems.

Vic.

[guest5920]

I share people's views that there is no definite of position for the headlights on jazz mk3. Driving into direct sunshine last week saw the headlights witch on and stay on for a couple of minutes. Honda must have major shareholding in lamp and battery manufacturers

[John Ratsey]

I share people's views that there is no definite of position for the headlights on jazz mk3. Driving into direct sunshine last week saw the headlights witch on and stay on for a couple of minutes. Honda must have major shareholding in lamp and battery manufacturers

The auto light sensor handles a dull day quite well but gets confused by bright sunshine with some shadows.

Another feature which is not mentioned in the handbook that a few raindrops which trigger the auto wipers (if enabled) will also turn the headlights on and, once on, they stay on for several minutes.

John

[ColinS]

Another feature which is not mentioned in the handbook that a few raindrops which trigger the auto wipers (if enabled) will also turn the headlights on and, once on, they stay on for several minutes.

In the "Fit" manual there is a section Headlight Integration with Wipers which is missing from the UK version.  It states "The headlights automatically come on when the wipers are used several times within a certain intervals with the headlight switch in AUTO. The headlights automatically go off a few minutes later if the wipers are stopped."

Having said that, there appears to be tons of stuff that the USA/Canadian versions have that are not included on European models.

[John Ratsey]

And it's that automatic linkage to the wipers (or more linkely the rain sensor) which needs to have more intelligence with cross-linkage to the prevailing brightness. I remember driving in sunshine last September when there was a brief shower which triggered the headlights to come on and I was several miles further down the road before they went off.

This topic has gone fairly quiet during the winter months when the auto headlights behaviour is reasonable, but I expect to be more complaints as we move towards summer and people notice their lights coming on due to a few shadows or raindrops in otherwise bright conditions.

The headlight behaviour could be improved through a software update if Honda decide to address the problem. However, I expect they need a lot more complaining customers before they will do anything.

[different1936]

the problem with theheadlight auto system on the mk3 jazz is that it can not be overridden and the light sensor
is to sensitive putting the lights on when no normal driver would put the headlights on.what to do about it ,as most owners will know when the handbrake is on the lighting switch allows the driver to turn the lights on and off at will
so far so good but we can not operate the car with the handbrake on this facility is so you can turn the lights off whensay parking at the road side. removing the centre console reveals the switch under the handbrake this switch with 2wires
on a plug running to it this plug fits on to a common terminal earth attached to the handbrake when the handbrake is released the switch is open circuit when the handbrake is applied the switch is closed allowing the lights to be turned on and off whatever the ambient lighting level. the switch is fastened to the handbrake by one screw it would appear unles
honda have fitted some fancy software within the wiring loom that removing the switch from the handbrake would allow
manual operation of the headlights .is there anyone out there with the electrical knowledge to to back this up.