Dont know if anyone else has had this issue but it is something to be wary of.

I was driving down the main road and a car was waiting in a side road to pull out. Just as I got near to the junction the car suddenly pulled out in front of me and I nearly broadsided it. After catching up with the other driver at the next set off traffic lights and exchanging a few expletives and questioning his parentage, he said he had pulled out as I had flashed him with my headlights.

I came to the realisation that due to it being quite overcast and the junction being shaded with trees, that the auto headlights had flicked on and due to the way the xenons come on with a bright flash and then dim slightly, the other driver must of thought I was flashing him to let him pull out.

It was a bit of a brown trouser moment and if I had been going much faster there would have been a huge freelander shaped dent in the other car.

as said it is something to be wary about and I wonder if this has happened to anyone else.

Once the lights are automatically turned on, they don't turn of for a couple of minutes, even if the ambient light is bright. Just for cases like this.
I believe he pulled your leg...

My 59 plate E250 Merc had auto dipping headlights and they were very dangerous ! Driving down country lanes the lights would auto dip if an outside light of a house was on. This meant that you had Zenons blazing away down an unlit country lane and all of a sudden the lights would dip down and the road dissapear ! Great idea ! Jaguar x-type sport gone
Jaguar x-type 2.2d sport one of my best cars ever sadly gone
Freelander 2 GS auto 2008 most unreliable ever ! gladly gone
Freelander 2 GS manual 2013 only time will tell !

I dont think it was the case of the lights going off again, it was the case of them brightly flicking on just as I got to the junction and he took that as a signal to go and didnt wait to see if they went off again. A similar thing happened to me in a multistorey car park once as I was driving into a covered section and the lights came on and someone pulled out. Didnt really bother me that time as I was only going slow. I think it is the way that the xenons flick on very bright at first that causes the problem

Yep, a well-known problem and another example of the car industry adopting technology to solve a problem that does not exist. Then again, if I worked as a designer in the lighting department of a large automotive company I would also be dreaming up similar unnecessary inventions in order to look busy and keep my job ! FL2 HSE Auto Galway Green
Evoque SD4 Auto Blue.
FL1 HSE TD4 Manual Black - Gone.
RR Classic V8 EFI - Gone

Also would be a misjudgement of the driver pulling out - the flashing of headlights is a warning to say you are there, like sounding your horn, not to say it is ok to pull out.

Although annoyingly just near where I live where I pull out on to a an A road from a residential street...there is on the main A road about 50 yds to my right a bump in the road...just like people are flashing their lights...

is there a way of turning down the sensitivity of the auto lights as my lights come on when it just starts to go a bit dark or under a canopy of trees, i don't need it to do this as i have DRL's I6 WITH GAS CONVERSION
HST BODY KIT
OSRAM LED DRIVING FOGS
CARS LOOKING GOOOOD!

alex_pescaru wrote:

Once the lights are automatically turned on, they don't turn of for a couple of minutes, even if the ambient light is bright. Just for cases like this.

It's not the cars fault, it's the driver of the other car, your lights came on, not flashed he thought they had and pulled out

Driver error on his behalf

They can sense a dip in light, but a sudden loss of light they know they are coming in and out of a tunnel etc so turn off shortly after

1:1000 chance of it happening again, never happened in 5 years to me

If you had hit him and he had tried to claim, your insurer would have grounds to reject the claim on the grounds that flashing of headlights, rather like the horn, must only be used to warn others of your presence (officially). Whilst we are all guilty of using them to either wave some one through or acknowledge, it is technically illegal. Foraging near Gaydon....
——————————————
MY13 HSE Lux SD4, Baltic Blue - current, 30,000> miles without fault
MY12 HSE 2.2 SD4, Sumatra Black - gone after 10 months/43,000 fault-free miles

I know it would be the other drivers fault, as regardless of what he thought my intentions were, he should not pull out into oncoming traffic. That bit doesn't bother me. I was more concerned about having the accident and causing injury and damage to my car.

The question of blame may very well come up as the latest crash for cash scam is very similar where the driver of a car will flash someone to pull out and then deliberately drive in to them saying they pulled out without warning. So regardless of who was to blame, I could see the police questioning both sides vigorously

Would you be more comfortable turning the Auto lights off

I daresay someone from Castlefield will try that one out for real soon......I'm Wycombe born and bred (until I escaped) and if it's gonna happen, that's where it will originate  Foraging near Gaydon....
——————————————
MY13 HSE Lux SD4, Baltic Blue - current, 30,000> miles without fault
MY12 HSE 2.2 SD4, Sumatra Black - gone after 10 months/43,000 fault-free miles

Dont get me wrong, I like the idea of auto lights especially as my other half sometimes had the habit of driving off at night without switching the lights on. I just think they are a little bit to sensitive and I wish that could be adjusted in a similar way to the auto wipers.

Badger, it has already happened in wycombe (I've already been sat on a trial about it) its becoming more prevalent across the country as a lot of people are now getting dash cams, so the suddenly pulling in front of someone and braking hard so you crash in the back of them is getting more risky. The criminal fraternity have now moved on to crashing into the side of you, and I suppose that will carry on until people start fitting sideways facing cameras

This is the main reason why I do not use the Auto function. I also find they didn't activate when I felt they needed to. A pointless system that further isolates the driver from the act of driving and using their judgement.