"Many cars have an AUTO option now, but would you trust it to choose the right thing? I didn’t, being unsure if it properly accounted for daylight rain driving."
While it doesn't negate the iconography discussion throughout the rest of the article, the AUTO option is the intended default, because it turns on low beams in every case where they're needed, including daylight rain driving, which is based on the use of windshield wipers. I'm always a bit baffled at the modern cars driving around without their lights on. The car does it for you these days.
The ability to select low beams vs daylight running lights (DRLs) is mostly for convenience for one-off odd circumstances where you would want to override AUTO for whatever reason.
I have the same light control on my car. Here's how it gets turned off: when I'm parking with the engine off, waiting for someone, the lights stay on unless I turn them off manually. If I don't turn them off, my use of the stereo and other accessories ends sooner than necessary when the car shuts them off to preserve enough charge to restart the engine.
Then, when I leave, I forget to turn the lights back to AUTO. Now I have no lights at all except for the front DRLs. (Even then, though, the low beams still come on automatically when the wipers are turned on for more than a couple of cycles.)
Really, the OFF position should work only when the car is parked. Otherwise, it should be equivalent to AUTO.
Great article, which I strongly agree with. Another reason I've personally see for over-reliance on icons instead of text is it's an easier, cheaper way to satisfy localization requirements.
In that Porsche example, you'd just leave the knob set to AUTO and it will always do the right thing. When the wipers come on (manually or otherwise) so will the low beams, given that this is a legal requirement in many places.
At least they had the sense not to try to invent an icon for 'AUTO', to give credit where it's due. English subtitles or (better) dashboard 'tooltips' would have been a good idea, and tooltips are in fact used in quite a few other contexts.
Don't parking/marker lights generally turn on your tail lights at the same brightness as when the headlights are on? Tail lights are generally two filament bulbs. The dimmer one is the continuously-on marker light and the brighter one is for the brakes. Maybe it's different with LED-native lights? I personally use just the marker lights in the rain (and dusk) because unless I am benefiting from the headlight beams, it's just extra light pollution for oncoming cars.
While it doesn't negate the iconography discussion throughout the rest of the article, the AUTO option is the intended default, because it turns on low beams in every case where they're needed, including daylight rain driving, which is based on the use of windshield wipers. I'm always a bit baffled at the modern cars driving around without their lights on. The car does it for you these days.
The ability to select low beams vs daylight running lights (DRLs) is mostly for convenience for one-off odd circumstances where you would want to override AUTO for whatever reason.
Then, when I leave, I forget to turn the lights back to AUTO. Now I have no lights at all except for the front DRLs. (Even then, though, the low beams still come on automatically when the wipers are turned on for more than a couple of cycles.)
Really, the OFF position should work only when the car is parked. Otherwise, it should be equivalent to AUTO.
At least they had the sense not to try to invent an icon for 'AUTO', to give credit where it's due. English subtitles or (better) dashboard 'tooltips' would have been a good idea, and tooltips are in fact used in quite a few other contexts.