The original intent of them was to make sure people had headlights on at dusk, dawn, and in poor weather. But many cars have had the light sensors skipped out of designs to save money, meaning the lights stay on all the time instead (and naturally, that money saver is turned into a "feature" so they can charge more for the car). For anyone that routinely deals with cutting wrecked cars off of people... many of these seemingly "conspiracy" safety changes are actually a welcome addition to the standard automobile. Yes... it is true... you need to be pretty stupid to not turn your lights on when it starts to get dark out... but there are an amazing number of stupid people on the road... and stupid people aren't the lives we are trying to save, it is lives of the smart ones the stupid people take. Much like drunk driving laws... we don't give a rats ass about saving the drunks... we get sick of moping the sober people off the highway, and watching the drunks walk away. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>