Auto headlights and wipers

[Mar10]

I was driving in heavy rain last weekend and suddenly realised that I was the only one around without headlights on. It was daylight and reasonably bright but the rain and spray was reducing visibility.

I put the headlights on manually to be seen rather than to see. It made me think though that I don’t remember needing to do this in my previous cars. I think I remember them automatically putting the headlights on when the wipers were on and in regular action?

Is there some setting somewhere to enable this? Seems that with all of the safety equipment it would be something they would have thought of. I’m not sure how many people are used ‘set and forget’ with headlights these days and so wouldn’t think to put them on in the rain to be seen by other drivers.

[daibill]

Happens frequently to me also. To the point where I manually intervene most of the time. The same team must have designed the rain sensor as the auto wipers are a joke as well... Has to be a monsoon out there for them to realise it's raining.

No setting that you describe available as far as I'm aware.

[Davis63]

Even with the AUTO headlamp feature
in operation, it is recommended to
manually turn ON the headlamps when
driving at night or in a fog, driving in the
rain, or when you enter dark areas, such
as tunnels and parking facilities.

this is in the manual on page 284 of 742 pages

[PhilHornby]

I was driving in heavy rain last weekend and suddenly realised that I was the only one around without headlights on.

or tail lights

Manually selecting the first (parking /sidelights) position appears to turn the tail lights on, while making no difference at the front of the car (i.e the Parametric lights stay on). Of course, this is quite difficult to check, because the minute you engage "P", or the handbrake, or open a door, everything changes anyway

I think I remember them automatically putting the headlights on when the wipers were on and in regular action?

This was optional on my previous car - and something I went searching for in the Tucson's menus. Never found it though

Even with the AUTO headlamp feature
in operation, it is recommended to
manually turn ON the headlamps when
driving at night...

If you turn them on manually, don't you lose the Auto Main-beam functionality

I recommend you ignore the manual

[GrumpyDad]

If you turn them on manually, don't you lose the Auto Main-beam functionality

Yes, once you switch out of auto the lights become fully manual.

----

With regard to the auto lights on the Tucson, they "Work", but I personally don't like the way they operate, and always override them. Ever since I can remember I have always turned my sidelights on when driving, day or night. This possibly comes from being a biker and always running with lights turned on when riding. When the legislation for running lights came in, I personally believe they made a huge mistake listening to the environment lobby groups that were against lighting during the day, meaning that as a compromise, the only running lights that were required were forward facing (initially it was also going to be daytime tail lights). That single change has been responsible for the glut of cars being driven at night with no tail lights, which is still happening so many years after the change. But beyond that, tail lights during the daytime are almost as useful as front facing lights, for getting other drivers to pay attention to what is in front of them. Unfortunately, while the auto lights on the Tucson will switch to proper side & tail lights come dusk, they have the standard front running lights no rear lights during the day. So I'd rather just turn the lights on every time I use the car. During a lot of conditions, the parametric grille lights are just as visible as the headlights (for those with the NX4 models).

With the NX4 models (I don't know about this in earlier versions), when you have the manually selected side or main beam lights turned on, it will automatically turn the lights off when you exit and lock the car; providing you don't turn them on manually, after shutting down the engine. So in principal, you can leave them permanently in the sidelight or main beam positions and the car will turn them off when you get to your destination. (I always have my sidelights on when parked away from home, unless I'm going to be away from the car for more than a few hours, so it was a little frustrating to me that the car was overriding the lights when shut down, until I realised that I just had to turn the lights to the auto position and back to sidelights to keep them on after locking up the car).