The lighting system of a motor vehicle consists of lighting and signalling devices mounted or integrated to the front, sides and rear of the vehicle. The purpose of this system is to provide illumination for the driver to operate the vehicle safely after dark, to increase the conspicuity of the vehicle, and to display information about the vehicle's presence, position, size, direction of travel, and driver's intentions regarding direction and speed of travel.
Colour of light emitted
The colour of light emitted by vehicle lights is largely standardised by longstanding convention, first codified in the 1949 Vienna Convention on Road Traffic and later specified in the 1968 United Nations Convention on Road Traffic. Generally, but with some global and regional exceptions, lamps facing rearward must emit red light, lamps facing sideward and all turn signals must emit amber light (though in North America rear turn signals may emit either amber or red light), lamps facing frontward must emit white or selective yellow light, and no other colours are permitted except on emergency vehicles.
Forward illumination
Forward illumination is provided by high- ("main", "full", "driving") and low- ("dip", "dipped", "passing") beam headlamps, which may be augmented by auxiliary fog lamps, driving lamps, and/or cornering lamps.
Headlamps
Main article: HeadlampDipped beam (low beam, passing beam, meeting beam)
Dipped-beam (also called low, passing, or meeting beam) headlamps provide a light distribution to give adequate forward and lateral illumination without blinding other road users with excessive glare. This beam is specified for use whenever other vehicles are present ahead. The international ECE Regulations for headlamps specify a beam with a sharp, asymmetric cutoff preventing significant amounts of light from being cast into the eyes of drivers of preceding or oncoming cars. Control of glare is less strict in the North American SAE beam standard contained in FMVSS / CMVSS 108.
Main beam (high beam, driving beam, full beam)
Main-beam (also called high, driving, or full beam) headlamps provide an intense, centre-weighted distribution of light with no particular control of glare. Therefore, they are only suitable for use when alone on the road, as the glare they produce will dazzle other drivers. International ECE Regulations permit higher-intensity high-beam headlamps than are allowed under North American regulations
Auxiliary lamps
Driving lamps
"Driving lamp" is a term deriving from the early days of nighttime driving, when it was relatively rare to encounter an opposing vehicle. Only on those occasions when opposing drivers passed each other would the dipped or "passing" beam be used. The full beam was therefore known as the driving beam , and this terminology is still found in international ECE Regulations, which do not distinguish between a vehicle's primary (mandatory) and auxiliary (optional) upper/driving beam lamps. The "driving beam" term has been supplanted in North American regulations by the functionally descriptive term auxiliary high-beam lamp . They are most notably fitted on rallying cars, and are occasionally fitted to production vehicles derived from or imitating such cars. They are common in countries with large stretches of unlit roads, or in regions such as the Nordic countries where the period of daylight is short during winter. Many countries regulate the installation and use of driving lamps. For example, in Russia each vehicle may have no more than three pairs of lights including the original-equipment items, and in Paraguay, auxiliary driving lamps must be off and covered with opaque material when the vehicle is circulating in urban areas.
Rallye and off-road lamps
Vehicles used in rallying, off-roading, or at very high speeds often have extra lamps to broaden and extend the field of illumination in front of the vehicle. On off-road vehicles in particular, these additional lamps are sometimes mounted along with forward-facing lights on a bar (commonly referred to as a light bar ) above the roof, which protects them from road hazards and raises the beams allowing for a greater projection of light forward.
Front fog lamps
Front fog lamps provide a wide, bar-shaped beam of light with a sharp cutoff at the top, and are generally aimed and mounted low. They may be either white or selective yellow. They are intended for use at low speed to increase the illumination directed towards the road surface and verges in conditions of poor visibility due to rain, fog, dust or snow. As such, they are often most effectively used in place of dipped-beam headlamps, reducing the glareback from fog or falling snow, although the legality varies by jurisdiction of using front fog lamps without low beam headlamps.
Use of the front fog lamps when visibility is not seriously reduced is often prohibited (for example in the United Kingdom), as they can cause increased glare to other drivers, particularly in wet pavement conditions, as well as harming the driver's own vision due to excessive foreground illumination.
The respective purposes of front fog lamps and driving lamps are often confused, due in part to the misconception that fog lamps are necessarily selective yellow, while any auxiliary lamp that makes white light is a driving lamp. Automakers and aftermarket parts and accessories suppliers frequently refer interchangeably to "fog lamps" and "driving lamps" (or "fog/driving lamps"). In most countries, weather conditions rarely necessitate the use of fog lamps, and there is no legal requirement for them, so their primary purpose is frequently cosmetic. They are often available as optional extras or only on higher trim levels of many cars. Studies have shown that in North America more people inappropriately use their fog lamps in dry weather than use them properly in poor weather.
Cornering lamps
On some models, white cornering lamps provide extra lateral illumination in the direction of an intended turn or lane change. These are actuated in conjunction with the turn signals, though they burn steadily, and they may also be wired to illuminate when the vehicle is shifted into reverse gear, as is done on many Saabs and Corvettes. North American technical standards contain provisions for front cornering lamps as well as for rear cornering lamps. Cornering lamps have traditionally been prohibited under international ECE Regulations, though provisions have recently been made to allow them as long as they are only operable when the vehicle is travelling at less than 40 kilometres per hour (about 25 mph).
Spot lights
Police cars, emergency vehicles, and those competing in road rallies are sometimes equipped with an auxiliary lamp, sometimes called an alley light, in a swivel-mounted housing attached to one or both a-pillars, directable by a handle protruding through the pillar into the vehicle. Until the mid-1940s, these spot lamps could be found as standard equipment on expensive cars. Until the mid-1960s, they were commonly offered by automakers as model-specific accessory items. More recently, customizers have installed them or dummy substitutes on their cars. Spot lamps are used to illuminate signs, house numbers, and people. Spot lights can also be had in versions designed to mount through the vehicle's roof. In some countries, for example in Russia, spot lights are allowed only on emergency vehicles or for off-road driving only.
Conspicuity, signal and identification lights
Conspicuity devices are the lamps and reflectors that make a vehicle conspicuous and visible with respect to its presence, position, direction of travel, change in direction or deceleration. Such lamps may burn steadily, blink, or flash, depending on their intended and regulated function.
Front
Front position lamps (parking lamps)
Nighttime standing-vehicle conspicuity to the front is provided by front position lamps , known as parking lamps or parking lights in North America, and front sidelights in UK English,. Despite the UK term, these are not the same as the sidemarker lights described below. The front position lamps may emit white or amber light in North America; elsewhere in the world they must emit only white light. Colloquial city light terminology for front position lamps derives from the practice, formerly adhered to in cities like Moscow, London and Paris, of driving at night in built-up areas usin
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