In your experience, have you encountered phantom vehicles while driving on the freeway at night?

What is your experience with these vehicles?
Or have never seen it?
They are quite a problem down on the lower mainland of our province.
It was raining quite heavy the other night and was almost on top of one of these vehicles before I spotted it, a little black car going way under the speed limit.

I have never experienced a phantom vehicle. I hit a phantom cow once… Seriously! I was very tired.

I have splattered a few phantom deer in my day as well.

Well I’ve seen people with only their running lights on but not headlights on the freeway, sure. The times I have noticed, their full headlights were not on, so not exactly the situation you describe as “newer vehicles”.

I have done a fair amount of night freeway driving and not noticed any dangerous low/off night lighting recently. I’ll look out for what you’re talking about now, though.

(Has safety-mania really progressed to the point where it’s not even possible to drive all “newer vehicles” without headlights on, or did you over-state that part?)

Oh yeah. Sometimes, I see cars with no lights at all. I’m usually driving around late at night though. You see it all when the bars let out…

@Zaku the problem is the newer vehicles have their dash lights on in daylight running mode, older ones did not, yes daylight running lights have been around for quite some time, but when the dash lights were not on and getting dark the driver then would realize they were in daylight running mode and switch their head lights on.
Now as it gets dark, the dash lights are on, and nothing tells the driver they are in daylight mode,their eyes adjust,and seeing they are on the freeway they don’t need highbeem so they just continue being a danger for vehicles over taking them.

It happened to me. I was driving a rental through the day and into the night and the while the headlights came on apparently the tail lights do not. I had no idea until someone flagged me down at a gas station and let me know.
F’ing ford explorer, I cannot believe this got past multiple engineers.

That is just it if that is going to happen shouldn’t there be an indicator light on the dash telling the driver they are in daylight mode?

Why not just turn on all the goddamn running and tail lights instead of having a “daylight mode?” Crazy if you asked me. I’m lucky I did not get creamed by a truck.

Our Government is going to mandate auto makers by 2020 to have the tail lights come on in daylight mode as well.
That little black car really scared me I was almost on top of it before I spotted it in the pouring rain, going way under the speed limit.(no tail lights)
They trained us when I got my class 1 (CDL) to always run with your headlights on.
Even though all big rigs have a daylight running mode as well.