I was in the Netherlands last August. The speed limit on motorways there is 100 km/h, which increases to 120 km/h at 7pm. On my final evening in the country, I was driving on a motorway and noticed that the car’s headlights came on at exactly 7pm.

I can’t find anything in Dutch motoring regulations that says headlights are compulsory after 7pm, which might have prompted the car’s software to turn them on at that time. Was this the car being lever or was it just a coincidence that the lights came on at the exact time the speed limit increased? As I said, this was my final day in the county so I couldn’t repeat the experiment. Perhaps if someone is visiting the Netherlands this year they could check?

The car is a 2018 Karoq SE-L with LEDs. Auto headlight set to Early.

I never rely on Auto lamps.

 

Through the winter months the switch lives in the ON position.

 

In summer it’s ON or OFF.

 

I don’t need any “welcome home” or “welcome departure’ lights.

 

Common sense tells you when lights should be on or off.

 

As it happens I’ll be riding my motor bike through the Netherlands in a few days and I won’t be waiting for the machine to decide when lights should be in or off.

14 hours ago, BoxerBoy said:

I never rely on Auto lamps.

 

Through the winter months the switch lives in the ON position.

 

In summer it’s ON or OFF.

 

Not quite sure the relevance of this to the OP's question ( the answer of which I haven't a clue but my logic says it's a co-incidence ).

 

But you haven't said why you don't rely on Auto lamps?  I've never found them to be a problem, in fact I think they should be std on every car and then it's up to the driver if they want to override them.

 

Does any one else get really annoyed at drivers who forget to turn on their lights? The problem seems to be that regardless of the switch position, the instrument lighting is always on so they think their front lights are on.

 

By the way, when you say things like in winter the switch lives in the ON position and in Summer it's either on/off - what's the difference between driving at 1pm whenther it be summer or winter?  And ithe switch can't live in the position because there's no such thing as an ON position - you either have sidelights or headlights - so you manually have to switch between both - unless you drive with your headlights on during daylight?  

 

We can always tell the cars with manual lights because at 11pm at night anytime of the year, we seen many cars driving with either their sidelights or off all together ( including rear lights ! ) Everytime I'm out at night I see at least one car with no lights on.   There's not a single car on the road with AUTO lights that happens to - unless of course the system is broken.

 

I think Auto lights are a really good safety feature and if they were to accommodate local laws such as those in Holland as the OP asks, then all the better.  Just my opinion.

Edited 9 May, 20233 yr by kodiaqsportline

1 hour ago, kodiaqsportline said:

 

By the way, when you say things like in winter the switch lives in the ON position and in Summer it's either on/off - what's the difference between driving at 1pm whenther it be summer or winter?  And ithe switch can't live in the position because there's no such thing as an ON position - you either have sidelights or headlights - so you manually have to switch between both - unless you drive with your headlights on during daylight?  

 

 

Although it amay be true that the DRLs on our Karoq act with equal brightness as 'sidelights' , the difference is that there are no rear lights on with the DRLs. And unusually the DRLs seem to funtion at the same brightness even when the headlights are on. On our othrer non VAG car, the DRLs become less bright when acting as sidelights.

 

On the subject of auto lights, I was following a Mini in the dark along the dual carriageway A31. There were no rear lights on. Eventually I passed it and found the the car was being driven on DRLs which appeared to be bright enough to provide some illumination of the road for the driver. If the car had been equipped with auto lights and they had been switched to auto this most probably wouldn't have happened. I always use auto on both cars, the only problem I have is that the system doesn't work in dalight fog, and I have to resort to switching on manually.

4 hours ago, Routemaster1461 said:

 

Although it amay be true that the DRLs on our Karoq act with equal brightness as 'sidelights' , the difference is that there are no rear lights on with the DRLs.

If you want to have the taillights on it's a straightforward tweak with Carista (and probably OBDeleven as well, though I don't have that so I can't be sure).

 

And you can choose the brightness level.

 

I don't really understand why the taillights aren't on at the same time as the front DRLs by default - it seems like a much more sensible (and safe) arrangement. Why would you not have something that makes you easier to see?

 

If I had a tenner for every car I'd seen tootling along in the gloaming with nothing but the front DRLs on, I'd probably have quite a lot of tenners.

 

.

That's why I don't rely on auto lights. When it starts to get dark I manually switch lights on, never wait for auto lights to kick in

On 10/05/2023 at 13:38, sussamb said:

That's why I don't rely on auto lights. When it starts to get dark I manually switch lights on, never wait for auto lights to kick in

 

Auto light shave various sensitivity settings. Mine are set to the laest sensitive setting and always come on at the merest hint of darkness. I've never had any issues on any of the cars I've owned dating back to 2007. I think people are much more likely to simply forget to switch the lights on if they operate them manually.

On 10/05/2023 at 13:38, sussamb said:

That's why I don't rely on auto lights. When it starts to get dark I manually switch lights on, never wait for auto lights to kick in

Auto lights kick in when it starts to get dark.

It's a great feature!

10 minutes ago, ItalianJob said:

Auto lights kick in when it starts to get dark.

It's a great feature!

Never soon enough for me and if they go wrong your car could be unlit. My brain works so I can still turn a switch when it's necessary without relying on electronics etc

Using one's brain is soo dated...

 

3 minutes ago, agedbriar said:

Using one's brain is soo dated...

 

Certainly some drivers seem incapable of using theirs 😂

On 07/05/2023 at 23:26, David61 said:

I was in the Netherlands last August. The speed limit on motorways there is 100 km/h, which increases to 120 km/h at 7pm. On my final evening in the country, I was driving on a motorway and noticed that the car’s headlights came on at exactly 7pm.

I can’t find anything in Dutch motoring regulations that says headlights are compulsory after 7pm, which might have prompted the car’s software to turn them on at that time. Was this the car being lever or was it just a coincidence that the lights came on at the exact time the speed limit increased? As I said, this was my final day in the county so I couldn’t repeat the experiment. Perhaps if someone is visiting the Netherlands this year they could check?

The car is a 2018 Karoq SE-L with LEDs. Auto headlight set to Early.

As a dutchman living in Holland and driving there all day, every day,  I can with certainty say that this was a coincidence.
At least......my Karoq doesn't do this and many other Karoq's I encounter in traffic also don't.