Fog lights turning off automatically

[hellodave]

Very foggy this morning so I turned on the fog lights under controls, 20 minutes later down the motorway in patchy fog I realized all my lights had turned off including the fog light. I assume the "auto" lights were turning off in a brighter areas and therefore turning off the fog light.

Obviously from now on I will make sure to turn the lights on manual with the fog light but surely the lights shouldn't turn off in auto when the fog light are on?? Seems pretty dangerous. Never had this issue with the auto headlights on my Golf, but then pretty much all the automatic systems are better on the Golf.

Also do people just drive with the rear window heat on all the time if you're driving in low temperatures/fog when the wing mirrors fog up? Seems like a waste of energy to be heating the rear window when it's not needed just to do the wing mirrors? I can't find a separate control?

 

[andyf1140]

If it stops people driving around with their fog lights on when the visibility is ok I'm all for that

 

[Alex987854]

If it stops people driving around with their fog lights on when the visibility is ok I'm all for that

It's not a good thing. I've had lights and fog lights turn off in dense but bright fog. It's annoying when people leave fog lights on, but I'd rather see them than not see them, and it does act as an idiot warning light.

 

[Roy B]

It's the case on all cars that fog lights (well, maybe legally only required for rear fog lights) are only operative when headlights are switched on and on dipped beam. Wouldn't surprise me if other cars do a better job of not turning the lights off inappropriately, though.

 

[MrBadger]

I previous cars with auto headlights they always said to switch to use manual headlights if foggy for precisely the reason that they can turn off in bright but foggy conditions. Turning off headlights will obviously also turn off fog lights. On at least one of our cars, if you wanted to turn on fog lights, it was on a rotary switch that controlled headlights (incl. auto) which then took the headlights off the auto setting.

Auto headlights turning off in fog is a common issue and not specific to Tesla, but Tesla could improve matters by having it that if you turn fog lights on, headlights revert to manual on.

 

[Roy B]

I'd go one further: I would always use manual lights in reduced visibility (even if not severe enough to warrant fog lights) as I don't trust the automatics to do the right thing - particularly if it's not actually dark, but just rain or spray reducing visibility...

 

[Xdama]

Very foggy this morning so I turned on the fog lights under controls, 20 minutes later down the motorway in patchy fog I realized all my lights had turned off including the fog light. I assume the "auto" lights were turning off in a brighter areas and therefore turning off the fog light.

Obviously from now on I will make sure to turn the lights on manual with the fog light but surely the lights shouldn't turn off in auto when the fog light are on?? Seems pretty dangerous. Never had this issue with the auto headlights on my Golf, but then pretty much all the automatic systems are better on the Golf.

Also do people just drive with the rear window heat on all the time if you're driving in low temperatures/fog when the wing mirrors fog up? Seems like a waste of energy to be heating the rear window when it's not needed just to do the wing mirrors? I can't find a separate control?

I’m surprised because I don’t think my headlights have ever switched off at all when driving. They certainly always show as being on, even in bright (low winter sun) conditions.

 

[hellodave]

Yeah I will obviously use the lights on manual now. I think it's just bad software decision to not change the lights to manual when you turn on the fog lights. In my Golf I pull out the light switch to put on fog lights but just leave it on auto, I presume this is essentially turning off the auto function in the software but either way it just works and behaves as you would expect.

 

[hellodave]

I’m surprised because I don’t think my headlights have ever switched off at all when driving. They certainly always show as being on, even in bright (low winter sun) conditions.

Yeah I feel like normally the running lights at least were always on all the time which is why I didn't expect it to turn them off/didn't really think I'd need to turn off auto. Maybe a software change or something to do with the conditions today.

 

[Xdama]

Yeah I feel like normally the running lights at least were always on all the time which is why I didn't expect it to turn them off/didn't really think I'd need to turn off auto. Maybe a software change or something to do with the conditions today.

Possible, I haven’t seen my car for a week lol.

 

[GRiLLA]

I previous cars with auto headlights they always said to switch to use manual headlights if foggy for precisely the reason that they can turn off in bright but foggy conditions. Turning off headlights will obviously also turn off fog lights. On at least one of our cars, if you wanted to turn on fog lights, it was on a rotary switch that controlled headlights (incl. auto) which then took the headlights off the auto setting.

Auto headlights turning off in fog is a common issue and not specific to Tesla, but Tesla could improve matters by having it that if you turn fog lights on, headlights revert to manual on.

However it's far more likely that we will see DeepFog™ to switch them on and off fully automatically, sometimes, unless it's dark, and sometimes when it's sunny.

 

[GRiLLA]

I'm not sure I understand the problem here, in patchy fog on a motorway surely the OP would be turning their fog lights on and off again pretty regularly, in order to avoid breaking the highway code for leaving them on when the visibility improves.

 

[hellodave]

I'm not sure I understand the problem here, in patchy fog on a motorway surely the OP would be turning their fog lights on and off again pretty regularly, in order to avoid breaking the highway code for leaving them on when the visibility improves.

My car turned off all of my lights while driving in fog, how is that not a problem?

 

[GRiLLA]

My car turned off all of my lights while driving in fog, how is that not a problem?

Your post said 'patchy fog', maybe I'm interpreting that differently. To me that would be some places with limited visibility (a fog patch) and others with greater visibility (where your fog lights should correctly be off).

 

[Xdama]

Your post said 'patchy fog', maybe I'm interpreting that differently. To me that would be some places with limited visibility (a fog patch) and others with greater visibility (where your fog lights should correctly be off).

I think he meant patchy fog, however he expected them to turn on when he hit another fog patch. Not just stay off

 

[darkNstormy]

I'd just like an easy way to access the fog light switches without having multiple screen presses or flashing the headlights to be honest.

 

[MrBadger]

I'd just like an easy way to access the fog light switches without having multiple screen presses or flashing the headlights to be honest.

Why they have not turned the on screen light icons to also act as buttons I have no idea.

 

[Barabing]

I'd just like an easy way to access the fog light switches without having multiple screen presses or flashing the headlights to be honest.

You can access the lights menu by pushing the indicator lever forward instead of towards you. This as far as I can tell doesn't flash the head lights, but brings up the same menu.

 

[Roy B]

The manual still says that pulling the stalk towards you flashes the headlights. Whether that has changed in V11 (and the manual simply hasn't been updated) I haven't tested.

EDIT: Oops, sorry, misread. AIUI pushing the stalk away from you toggles headlights beam between dipped and mainbeam, or between dipped and auto - depending on whether auto main beam is enabled in settings. So if auto is enabled, it's kind of doable (if you trust the auto main beam). I think I need to do some testing as to what it actually does.

 

[Irata]

However it's far more likely that we will see DeepFog™ to switch them on and off fully automatically, sometimes, unless it's dark, and sometimes when it's sunny.

That got me thinking...

I wonder what they'll call the system to avoid driving straight through horse dung on the road. Deep....