Why, when I turn off the engine of my car do the headlights not turn off automatically? To my mind the primary function of a car is transport. When I turn the engine of my car off, and the headlights are left on this drains the battery. It my car stays in this state for long enough when I return and try and start it it won’t start because the battery is required to power the starter motor which gets the main engine going.
At what point was it decided that the primary function of a car was to act as a large, mobile torch, and that the whole “transport” thing was a “nice to have”? Rather than optimizing for the common case (yes, I want to return to my car and have it function correctly) and turning off the lights when the engine is turned off, lets make sure we leave the lights on - just in case thats what the driver wanted. I think I’ve probably wanted to leave the lights on when the engine was off only a handfull of times, but I always want my car to work properly when I come back to it. Maybe there should be a special “I want to leave my lights on and drain my battery” button, rather than assuming this is always the case. Some cars provide and audible cue to remind the driver the lights are on. I think this is silly, because it still makes the far-less-common case the default. I know some european cars behave correctly and turn off automatically - maybe I just bought the wrong make of car.
Comments
The primary purpose of the modern car is safe transportation. You just can’t get away from those non-functional requirements :-)
Jim
In my car it beeps to remind me the lights are on, which I think is pretty good. yes I do think there are tiems you want to take the keys with you but leave the lights on.
now what really annoys me is the damn electric windows and sunroof, havingn to put the keys in and turn the ignition on to close them ! There should be an option on the alarm/remote locking device to close the windows !!