WAUKESHA, Wis. — Driving without headlights has become such an issue those cars have a name, phantom vehicles. It often happens by mistake. New technology is trying to stop the dangerous problem.
During a TMJ4 ride along with a Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Deputy, they pulled over a driver on I-94 unaware they were breaking the law.
“They don’t notice that their lights aren’t on,” said Deputy Lacy Garey during the 2018 ride-along.
This issue is so common it has a name, phantom vehicles.
“It refers to vehicles that don’t have their lights properly illuminated at night causing them to be ghost-like cars,” said Nick Jarmusz, public affairs director for AAA.
He says it is very dangerous especially since more crashes happen at night even though there are less vehicles on the road. According to theNational Safety Council59 percent of crashes occur during the nighttime hours.
Phantom vehicles has became such a major issue that the Canadian government has created a law to try to stop it. Canada’s Transport Minister says between daytime running lights and dashboards that automatically light up when it is dark, people make the error of assuming their headlights are on, when they aren’t.
The U.S. is now benefiting from Canada’s action because automakers are starting to create ways to default to having the lights on instead of off. The automaker Porsche has been doing something like this since 2017 and this year that smart headlight technology is on almost every model.
“When we start a Porsche, the headlights are going to go to automatic,” said Larry Mackowski, general manager of Porsche of Waukesha.
Even though you can turn the headlights off, the technology will not let them stay off if the car is moving.
“Once we start rolling and hit six miles an hour, headlights, tail lights they are going to turn on,” said Mackowski.
Jarmusz says they expect to see more vehicles coming out that comply with Canada’s new standard, but he warns, people keep their cars for a long time so the problem of phantom vehicles on the road is not going to go away quickly.
“U.S. auto owners keep their vehicles for about 10 to 12 years before they trade into a new vehicle, so certainly there's a lag between when a feature is required, and when we begin to really see a significant impact on the road,” said Jarmusz.
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