Why did it take so long to add this super-useful feature to cars? Surely 50 years ago, after the 5 millionth car battery was drained (made up, no cite) and it’s owner cursing, the technology existed! No?
Honestly, cars always came with a signal that you left your headlights on. The headlights light up when they are on. Most people don’t have to drain many batteries before they learn that they last much longer if you turn the headlights off.
When they added an audio notification (originally a buzzer) in the late 1970s, it was not well received. Perhaps because it was introduced at the same time as the seatbelt notification, but I remember people complaining about it a lot (and, specifically the headlight notification, not the seatbelt). The chime often used now is somewhat easier on the ears, but it is still bothers a lot of people who have to purposely have their headlights on when the engine is not running.
My Dad installed one from Radio Shack in his '75 Impala. Saved us a dead batt the second week when you-know-who left the lights on.
Even better; the Toyotas that my parents have purchased recently have headlights that turn off automatically.
Not just Toyota. I can’t think of any car I’ve had in the past 20 years that didn’t either turn the headlights off or have an “auto” setting (that turns the lights off). I don’t think I ever drained a battery with my headlights. I had a conversion van that would drain the battery (way too many lights and stuff in that thing), but I bought a solar panel thingy that plugged into the cigar lighter. Since I parked it outside, the solar charger kep the battery charged up.
My 1984 model car had a chime and my 1996 model car had automatic shutoff. They were nothing special. Maybe you just pick especially crappy cars?
Which are quite hard to see in daylight.
My Volvo has headlights on when driving, off when ignition off*. Never have to worry about headlights on in rain or special driving zones, never have to worry about leaving them on.
This would have been a even better idea than warning bells.
- you can override this manually, if needed.
Funny thing about automotive technology. You know the inside light that comes on and off when you open and close the car door? It wasn’t patented until 1947, and I can’t find a reference to it in use before 1955.
Intermittent windshield wipers were patented in 1964.
No automotive manufacturer in the world had seat belts as standard equipment until Saab in 1959.
By contrast the automatic transmission was developed in the 1930s. Priorities.
My Toyota’s headlights stay on until I open the door, then they turn off.
And with our '07 Uplander, they stayed on 1 minute after you closed the door so you had a lighted path to get to the door and, if you parked correctly, a light to insert the door key with.
It was called personal responsibility.
it died a long time ago.
We let people pilot 2-10 ton vehicles, at 55+ mph 10’s of inches from trees, poles, pedestrians, on coming cars.
Why would we want to enable someone who’s not responsible enough to mind their batt/light switch.
If that have to buy a batt, that’s a $100-$200 fine. If that don’t remind them, how well will a speeding ticket work?
To be fair, I personally advocate for all cars to be NON-SYNCROMESH manual transmission. So obviously I started with a bias.
And three on the tree.
When my Wife first bought her fist truly modern car I thought - “this thing must have a wiring harness as big as an airliner. Well, I won’t have to work on it, cause I can’t.”
It’s good though. The crap we had to deal with in the 1980’s. My god. Five MPH bumpers… Riigggght.
one time I lost a battery because the lights were left on after the state inspection. It was a bright sunny day so I did not notice the lights being on when I got home. The next morning when the car would not start I noticed the light switch was still in the on position. (I did not leave the house after dark or else I would have seen the lights on) That car was a 1990 Toyota and it did not have auto turn off or an audio sound to warn me the lights were on.
While not universal, the feature of turning headlights off with the key is typically tied to daytime running lights.
Sweden was the first to enact mandatory DRL laws in 1977, but in the US they were not legal country until 1992 when the NHTSA permitted their use.
When I had a Saab in the early 1990’s (1974 model 96) it looked like a clown car on US roads, was still very utilitarian but had heated seats and automatic headlights. People would often helpfully try to get my attention by flashing their lights during the day to let me know they were on.
The automatic style that turns on at dusk has been available on Cadillac or Lincoln cars since the 1960’s, but it’s availability on other brands has followed a complicated mixture of features, requirements for dip DRLs in some countries and cheap microcontroller busses in modern cars.
Note that in 2016 the UN ECE required automatic (dawn/dusk) headlights on all cars, so the feature will probably be universal in the future.
Back in the early 1980s, I had a 1967 car that I drained the battery on once too many times. I went to Radio Shack and bought the little gizmo, which was about 1 inch across (or a little larger), and about a quarter-inch in height. It cost me around $7. The front face was a grill, allowing the buzzer underneath to be heard. It had a couple of wires which had to be hooked up to some of the wires in the steering column.
Worked like a charm, with its little buzzing noise.
1963 ford thunderbird
turn off key and leave headlights on and it makes this annoying sound like a dying 60 year old buzzer.
(probably because it is a dying nearly 60 year old buzzer)
I’ve never understood why they wired it so that darned near everything else would shut off when you took the keys out except the headlights. Was very pleased when one of my cars was wired to turn the light off when you took the key out (a Subaru).
Had to be the same one, but I think it was a buck cheaper when Dad bought his. The best part? When the Impala (I loooved that car!) went to that farm up-state? Diagonal cutters, snip-snip, into the next vehicle it went (I’m thinking it was a Buick.).
There was this one time, when I was a teen, my Mum was on holiday and had left me her house keys that also had her car keys. I thought it might be a good idea to “borrow” her car to visit my girlfriend. Being a conscientious, albeit unlicensed, driver, I had the headlights on while I was driving on the highway. When I got to my girlfriends house, I opened the door and heard a tone coming from the car. Closed the door and it stopped. Opened the door and it started. Aha! I thought, this noise is to tell me the driver’s door is open :smack:. Several hours later I went back to the car and discovered it had a flat battery. It was Christmas day. Everywhere was closed.