With all the new technologies there is available for cars nowadays, you’d think that car manufacturers would try and make them as safe as possible. And, credit where credit’s due, generally I think they are doing a very good job at it. I mean God knows I’ve been in a few seriously breathtaking car accidents (some literally) and until now have always been able to walk away with nothing more than a severe headache and gibberish legs. But every now and then I wonder who comes up with a certain idea and why nobody stops that person from getting it into the final model. It’s just strange. Example? Today when I was going home and walked to the car I saw a couple of cars driving away without their headlights on. Mind you that this was at about a quarter past five and in this time of year it’s already dark outside. When I spotted the first one I just thought ‘he’ll probably turn them on when he’s a few feet on his way’ but it took the man a serious light signal from another car to realize that he was driving without his lights on. Then I crossed the road just in time to see another one leaving the parking lot and this car didn’t have the headlights on either. I noticed that they were both Opel cars (Vauxhall for the Britt’s among the readers) and when the car passed me (while ignoring my signs completely) I saw that the dashboard lightning actually was on. And that’s when I all of a sudden remembered that the Seat I got from the company I work for has the exact same system: when you turn on the engine the dashboard turns on, whether you have your headlights on or not. Problem is that when you’re driving away from a well lit spot you don’t immediately need the headlights to see the road ahead and when your dashboard lights up like a Xmas tree I can imagine you don’t directly realize that your headlights didn’t. While driving home I spend about the entire trip thinking about what could be the reason or advantage of having the dash light up directly instead of together with the headlights but I just can’t think of anything. Nothing at all, not even something that might remotely explain it. Weird.