Found this rather amazing. I for one have always appreciated good fog lamps, for their intended use in inclimate weather, driving on rural roads at night but also to help differentiate my car from others in heavy traffic and low light conditions. During the day I tend to use parking lights and fogs as my "day time running lights".
Bean counters instead of drivers?
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From the New York Times
Why Fog Lamps Are Starting to Disappear
By JAMES G. COBB <time datetime="2017-06-29T23:13:04-04:00" itemprop="dateModified" content="2017-06-29T23:13:04-04:00" style="margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; font-size: 1em !important; font-weight: normal !important; display: inline !important;">JUNE 29, 2017</time>
<header style="max-width: 100%; color: rgb(27, 27, 27); font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 17px;"></header><figure data-media-action="modal" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemid="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2017/06/29/business/30WHEELS1/30WHEELS1-superJumbo.jpg" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" aria-label="media" role="group" class="clear" style="margin: 1.4em 0px; max-width: 100%; font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098); clear: both;">
<figcaption itemprop="caption description" style="max-width: 100%; margin-top: 1em; width: 604.484375px;">General Motors’ headquarters and other buildings in the Detroit skyline, obscured by early morning fog. Some automakers have quietly omitted front fog lights from many new models, saying that high-tech headlights make them unnecessary. Kevin Miyazaki for The New York Times </figcaption></figure>
Add another item to the list of once-common features — including ashtrays, spare tires and turn-the-key ignition switches — disappearing from new cars: fog lamps.
Several makers of luxury vehicles have quietly omitted the front fog lights from many of their latest models, including Audi, Cadillac, Lincoln, Mercedes-Benz and the new Genesis line from Hyundai. The trend is unlikely to stop there, as changes to high-end models inevitably filter down to mainstream cars and trucks.
Those companies say their latest high-tech headlights make separate fog lamps unnecessary. There is scant independent research to verify such claims; the public-interest groups that test headlights, including Consumers Union and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, do not conduct tests of fog lights and do not take a position on their effectiveness.
Nor do the federal safety regulators that issue standards for high- and low-beam headlights. In a statement, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said, “Fog lamps are considered supplemental equipment, which means there are no applicable federal requirements for these lamps other than they must not impair the effectiveness of the required lighting equipment.”
Though fog is an isolated and somewhat regional and seasonal road hazard, it is particularly challenging for drivers. A 2014 report by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, looking at federal 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 percent of deadly multicar pileups involving 10 or more vehicles.
Fog is especially prevalent in some regions, including much of the Southeast, northern New England, the Pacific Northwest and the Central Valley of California, and it forms most often in winter. Deadly multicar crashes generally occur when cars and trucks traveling at interstate speed drive into what is essentially a low-lying cloud and quickly lose visibility. Drivers may not see the slowed cars ahead until it is too late, with one vehicle crashing into the next, including huge tractor-trailers.
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