Fog lamps, a standard
feature on cars, may soon disappear – at least from luxury cars.
Several makers of
luxury vehicles, including Audi, Cadillac, Lincoln, and Mercedes-Benz, are
omitting the front fog lamps from many of their latest models – and the new
Genesis line from Hyundai will also be without fog lamps.
Those companies say
their latest high-tech headlights make separate fog lamps unnecessary.
However, the
public-interest groups that test headlights, including Consumers Union and the
Insurance Institute for Highway Saftey in America, say that they have not
tested the new lights to determine their effectiveness in fog.
Fog is often an
isolated, regional or seasonal road hazard, but it is particularly challenging
for drivers. A 2014 report by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety in America,
that studied national crash data on fatal crashes from 1990 to 2012 and
police-reported crashes from 1990 to 2008, found that fog was a factor in
nearly 20% of deadly multi-car pileups involving 10 or more vehicles.
Fog lamps are
intended to provide an adjunct to the low beams. Because fog hovers close to
the ground, the lamps are designed to shine down, illuminating the road beneath
the fog. The top of the beam is cut off sharply so the light does not shine
into the fog and reflect off it.
Aside from the fog
lights in the front, which can help the driver to navigate, rear fog lamps —
which look like an extra-bright taillamp on just one side — make cars more
visible to the drivers behind the car in bad weather. Rear fog lamps are
required in Europe but not in the United States, though most European
manufacturers include them on cars sold in the United States.
While some companies
are phasing out discrete fog lights at the front of the car, others are keeping
them. A Volkswagen of America spokesperson said: “No, we are not phasing them
out at all. They can be quite useful.”
The General Motors
spokesperson said the high-tech headlamps on the Cadillac CT6 luxury sedan
produce “such an abundance of light” that they not only meet the company’s
criteria for factors such as distance, glare and uniform illumination, but also
“fill in the foreground of the beam pattern to basically do what fog lights do,
creating generous amounts of foreground light. So if there is fog or rain or
whatever, you are able to see those road markings. Not only will fog lamps be
unnecessary, but maybe there won’t be headlights at all.”
My sister took the
photograph of fog while waiting for her bus.
MARTINA NICOLLS is an international
aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different
in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament
(2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a
Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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