No taillights this morning in dark/rain/heavy traffic Interstate

[JulienW]

This morning (pre dawn/6AM) was driving on I285 (Perimeter [what we call it]/Beltway). It was blinding rain and heavy traffic. Car behind me started flashing brights on/off. I turned down the stereo and they were also honking horn. Thought they were “road ragging” for some reason so switched lanes hit the go pedal and went ahead. Getting near exit noticed 2 other cars also flashing their brights. Near panic I look down and at first (even after 4 months) thought my lights were not on because of the dark dash. Also no "idiot" light on indicating taillights out. Had used the push button on stalk to “force” a wiper wipe and my head was spinning thinking is there any control of the lights there (I know but panic puts all options on the table). Pulled over and put in P and got out. No Taillights but then was confused since the car was in P do they stay on (have headlights set to stay on after exit). I then manually switched to ON and they came on. Drove the rest of the way with then switched to ON and then did MCU reset. Now they seem to be working fine.

Still a little shaken knowing I was out there is a blinding rain on a heavy traffic interstate with 18 wheelers all around me and they could not see me.

 

[⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️]

Hmm. I don't have an M3, but I just got updated to V10. On my dash display my tail lights don't look like they are on when they should be. I thought maybe it was a V10 display thing, but maybe the tail lights are actually not on.

A couple of months ago I was driving home and the display showed that my left tail light was on and my right tail light was off. I took a picture of it. I wasn't able to verify if the light was actually out or not because as soon as I opened my door the display and lighting changed. Wish I would have called a family member to have them come out to the garage and look, before I opened my door.

 

[RayK]

Still a little shaken knowing I was out there is a blinding rain on a heavy traffic interstate with 18 wheelers all around me and they could not see me.

Did you recently receive and apply an OTA update for the car? If so, the conventional wisdom is that you should always perform a re-boot after the update is installed. It seems to fix (prevent) many things that can go wrong when updating the car's software.

My pet peeve is driving around in the dark, at least one hour after sundown, and seeing, or in some cases almost NOT seeing, cars on the road with no headlights or taillights on, only their "halo" or running lights being used. I do the same "flash the headlights" when behind them, or turn off my lights if I'm in front, but only have about a 10% success rate in getting them to light up. invariably if I get beside them, their dashboard lights are on (brightly, for nighttime driving it seems) and most of them are on the phone.

 

[tvad]

Still a little shaken knowing I was out there is a blinding rain on a heavy traffic interstate with 18 wheelers all around me and they could not see me.

Did you submit a bug report from the car?

 

[St☰v☰]

Hmm. I don't have an M3, but I just got updated to V10. On my dash display my tail lights don't look like they are on when they should be. I thought maybe it was a V10 display thing, but maybe the tail lights are actually not on.

On my 3, my head, tail, and brake lights appear.

 

[JulienW]

Looks like it did it again last night. Also for reference on Tuesday I was on 32.1 when it did it. Yesterday (Wednesday) I updated to 32.2. When I got in my car last night I stopped put in P and got out to check. The headlights were on but the taillights were not. I then switched to ON and then they came on. When I got in my parking deck I switched back to AUTO and as I drove around a corner I could see the taillights on in a reflection, so it is NOT just an AUTO problem (maybe). However when I put in P and got out to plug in the taillights were off while my headlights were still on. Don't the taillights stay on ANYTIME the headlights are on?????? Can someone please check this.

Going to try in AUTO while looking at reflection to see if they come on or not. Stating to get concerned they may not always be working in ON but short of having someone follow me don't know how to check.

Picture in P with headlights on.

 

[jdw]

If you had "Headlights on While Exiting" enabled, the car would behave like this on exiting. No idea what might have happened while driving.

 

[⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️]

On my 3, my head, tail, and brake lights appear.

Mine do too. It's just not as apparent in the V10 graphics compared to V8. Another V10 shortcoming.