On Sun, 19 Dec 2004, James C. Reeves wrote:

> NHTSA rules allowing high beams to be suitable as DRLs effectively
> trumped that law.

Naw, they didn't. What they did was make it that much harder for cops to
discern legal high beams in traffic (DRLs) from illegal high beams in
traffic (assholes). Just like they can't realistically tell the difference
between legal blue bulbs or factory HIDs, and illegal blue bulbs and HID
"retrofits".

> (or at least made the law somewhat ambiguous to make enforcement
> difficult).

Yep, that's it exactly.

> The definition of "on" isn't defined.

Actually, that's an even better point. According to NHTSA's chief lighting
rulemaker, the US DRL spec requires that the DRLs turn off when the
headlamp switch is in *ANY "ON" POSITION*, including "parking lamps". But
Canada requires the DRLs to be on even if the parking lamps are on, unless
the _headlamps_ are also on. Since DRLs are required in Canada, the
carmakers who sell DRL-equipped cars in the US wire 'em up Canada-spec.
GM's the main offender, NHTSA is aware of the problem, and has brought it
to the attention of GM, and GM responds "We'll try not to do it in
future".

Meanwhile, the beginnings of a mandatory-DRL law are bubbling at NHTSA,
and they're looking at ways of satisfying the need to be able to defeat
the DRLs for temporary purposes (e.g. driving onto a military base).
They're thinking of requiring a timed-defeat button which, when pressed,
turns off the DRLs for a predetermined time or distance.

Apparently the notion of actually enforcing their own rules upon the
automakers is not a workable solution.

> Since the lay only differentiates on or off and highbeam DRL's are
> legal.....how to enforce the laws making "old" full bright brights
> illegal?!

Well, that's the other problem, is that the "anything goes" DRL spec has
grossly worsened misuse of lights. Time was, you would alert someone their
high beams were on and they'd say "Oops...thanks." Nowtimes, you do the
same thing and they say "So? All the new cars use them all the time."