How dangerous is this....

For those of you that are local, this is coming up Puttenham hill from the Harvester, turning right to the A31 to go south.

For those not local, imagine this:

You've stopped behind a car who has given way, turning right, and you're behind it, also turning right. Cars are coming in the opposite direction, and about 10 yards in front of you is a high bridge, about 20 yards of dark-ish "tunnel" in total.

Now, the old car in front is being piloted by an old dude. Cars are accelerating past him about 30-40mph (theres a 90 degree corner just before the bridge, leading to a downhill straight for opposing traffic).

Now, a fairly new Peugeot 407 goes under the bridge...and magically detects its "dark". So puts the dipped headlights on (its 6pm, in full sun otherwise).

Old dude waves politely and pulls straight into him, pretty much at old-dude-3mph acceleration speed

I, await the collision.

Mr Peugeot is not a happy man.

End of story. Analysis:

Did the car manufacturers not see this obvious flaw when they built this "gadget" in? - I mean, forgetting to put your headlights on in the dark in December is one thing, but how many times a day must this happen in the UK, and can you turn it off? Quite frankly I think Peugeot should be publicly flogged for this device, its nothing short of lethal.

Before anyone mentions it, yes, you should never take action on the road on someone else's advice, actions or behaviour, so ultimately it was the old dude's fault.

[G]

Was there actually a collision.

And thats technology for you.

Although to be fair I have worked on the design safety of cars and their systems......they normally have a good 30 second delay before they switch on and then stay on for a minimum of 2 minutes so as to avoid it looking like they have just flashed someone.

I must confess that I had no idea that new cars did that! Cheers.

Usually I will wait and see that the car is also slowing down a tad before moving off - and not just rely on the lights unless it is obvious. Usually.


Just to throw in a bit about making assumptions, in the past spent a chunk of time down in Thailand.......if a vehicle flashes it's headlights at you, then do NOT cross in front of them as it means "I have seen you, but I have no intention (or often means!) of stopping and am probably accelarating to make sure yer cannot get accross"........makes for a bit of fun watching Tourists crossing roads

Whether there was a collision or not is wholly irrelevant.

The relevance is the misunderstanding the device can cause, under certain circumstances and I think these circumstances are not individual to what I saw yesterday.

I expected this to happen actually, and will do every time I sit there waiting for a gap now.

I can tell you truthfully there was about a 3-4 second space between the car going under the bridge, and the lights coming on, which coincidentally was when the car existed the darkness area. So the whole illumination sequence was not only misleading, but further to that, pointless.

[Luckypants]

It's just a gadget and could be turned off on the car I had it on. It is a quite useful feature for those numpties that drive in bad weather during the day with no lights though. But the system is fooled by fog so you need to manually turn on your lights.

Basically it is like all new things, answers one or two issues but creates new ones.

The 'inadvertent flashing' you describe is not an issue I ever had with automatic headlamps and I think it is quite easy to differentiate between dipped beam being switched on and a flash of main beam. I feel the driver who pulled across the Peugeot's path was not really paying attention and should have recognised the difference between dipped beam and a flash of the lamps. I agree with the comment that you don't act on other road user's 'signals'.

Originally Posted by Wayluya

I must confess that I had no idea that new cars did that! Cheers.

I may be wrong, but I think mercs and BMWs have it too, maybe optionally.

[the_lone_wolf]

Originally Posted by Wayluya

Just to throw in a bit about making assumptions, in the past spent a chunk of time down in Thailand.......if a vehicle flashes it's headlights at you, then do NOT cross in front of them as it means "I have seen you, but I have no intention (or often means!) of stopping and am probably accelarating to make sure yer cannot get accross"........makes for a bit of fun watching Tourists crossing roads

When my parents lived in SA flashing yoru lights meant the same as leaning on the horn over here

[G]

Another one that I have noticed is bikes with hard suspsension....the slightest bump and it looks like a bike is flashing its headlight, which could ultimately cause a car to pull out infront of you.

Although theres no cure except of having your lights switched off, which you cant really do easily on most bike, and its not like its a design fault like your describing.

Thinking about this case a bit more - I think the old fella should have realised that a car exiting the dark could have it's lights on - but maybe from what is described the delay on the switch was the problem by turning on at the wrong moment.

[Ch00]

I have auto headlights on my Focus C-Max but they can be turned off to manuel mode just by turning a dial. Mine dont seem to come on in a short tunnel.

Ch00