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Originally Posted by Water Warrior
Both the U.S. and Canada have some darn good laws for making things safe but I have one question. Why didn't the U.S. make Daytime Running Lights mandatory in 1990 like Canada did? Anything manufactured after Jan 1/1990 had to have them. I made my own in 1988 for $10 worth of parts.
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There's actually quite a bit of info on that on wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daytime_running_lamp
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Shortly after Canada mandated DRLs, General Motors, interested in reducing the build variations of cars for the North American market, petitioned the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 1990 to permit (but not require) US vehicles to be equipped with DRLs like those in Canada. NHTSA objected on grounds of the potential for high-intensity DRLs to create problems with glare and turn signal masking, and issued a proposed rule in 1991 that specified a maximum intensity of 2,600 cd. Industry and safety-watchdog reacted with great controversy to the proposed rule, and eventually the glare objections were set aside and most of the same types of DRLs allowed in Canada were permitted but not required effective with the 1995 model year.
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It all seems to boil down to money. Car makers, even in Canada, didn't want to spend money to make separate DRL's running at 1500 candelas max, as the EU states had mandated, so they petitioned to use regular headlights at a max of 7000 candelas.
The US sort of followed suit, but safety officials argued that 7000 candelas were too bright, but this again ran into the money issue. No one wanted to make separate DRLs because of cost.
These days, it's more about fuel economy, and they argue that headlight based DRLs are wasteful, and LED DRL's are becoming more fashionable. This is cool, in my opinion, because widespread use will boost LED technology advances and lower the prices overall.
now the NHTSA says: (2009)
(…)the agency remains neutral with respect to a policy regarding the inclusion of DRLs in vehicles (…) we do not find data that provides a definitive safety benefit that justifies Federal regulation (…) manufacturers should continue to make individual decisions regarding DRLs in their vehicles