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Today, I observed traffic going over a roundabout on an one-way narrow street. It was a small roundabout designed as a short pavement to allow larger vehicles to go over it if there's not enough space. I noticed that difference car makes while doing the maneuver of going around/over this roundabout would automatically turn on the sidelights/parking lights and in an alternative way. While in the roundabout, the right sidelight would turn on and when it was out of the roundabout the left light would turn on while the right one would turn off. I'm assuming these were sidelights/parking lights as these were the lower lights on the front bumper of the cars I noticed this behaviour. I'm sure these weren't DRL's, or some kind of adaptive headlights. And definitely these weren't the directional lights, as they were white (local drivers don't seem to give too much thought on using directional lights on roundabouts, unfortunately!). One specific car model that seem to show the behaviour is the latest model of the Fiat Tipo, but I also saw VW and Mercedes doing this. These were all European models. Can anyone explain this?

nafarinha
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  • Welcome to Motor Vehicle Maintenance & Repair! I would bet what you're seeing is the running (marker) lights turn off while the blinker is on. This is done because on newer cars with LED running/marker lights, they are so bright you cannot see the turn signals when on. They go out to emphasize the turn indicator. – Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 Dec 10 '20 at 01:50
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    I've seen this on a few different (primarily European) makes - the front "fog" lights acting as cornering lamps by illuminating on the side of the direction of steering (and sometimes triggered by indicator). The theory is that illuminates the section of road you're heading towards better. Honestly I'm not convinced it's actually useful - in the rare instances it shows you something you wouldn't otherwise have seen it's unlikely to be in time to do anything about it IMO. – motosubatsu Dec 10 '20 at 11:21
  • @Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 thanks for the welcoming:) Most of the time drivers weren't using the blinkers, which is a bit annoying for fellow drivers. Unfortunately a very common behaviour, at least around here. – nafarinha Dec 11 '20 at 09:30
  • @motosubatsu I considered that as an option. From what I saw, indeed, they didn't do a great work illuminating that side of the road as it was dusk and the street lights weren't on yet. And even when they eventually turned on, at the exits of the roundabout there were pedestrian crossings and on one the light was broken and it didn't make any difference whatsoever. Because it was that ineffective, I wondered if there was another reason for the car lights to turn on automatically. – nafarinha Dec 11 '20 at 09:39
  • @nafarinha There's no other reason that I know of - and whenever I've seen the feature marketed that was the reason behind it.IMHO it's just an ineffective gimmick. – motosubatsu Dec 11 '20 at 09:41

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