Driving dark question

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mdjones

Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2014
Messages
6
I'm not a Leaf buyer and probably won't be until spring of next year at the earliest but I need to know...

Can the Leaf be driven at night with no headlights on? I see the SV has "auto on/off headlights" and I'm not sure what that all means. I do some amateur astronomy work and headlights are a big no-no at the observatory or in the observing field after dark if other members are there. Otherwise I'd have to find a way to move about 120 pounds of telescope and other gear about 100 meters to and from where I can park with my headlights on.

Any thoughts on this would be helpful. Thanks in advance.
 
I don't know about the SV, but my '14 SL can be turned off.

That said, it's pretty dangerous to drive at night with no headlights. Especially in an area dark enough for astronomy. Needless to say, I wouldn't recommend doing that. I'd rather piss off a few people than risk something bad happening.

Keep in mind the Leaf doesn't make a lot of external noise, and collisions with wildlife could be more likely, especially if you have no headlights.
 
Auto headlights is an optional feature on the upper trim levels, and are designed with the typical On/Off/Auto switch positions. You'll have no problem using (or not using) the headlights for any occasion.
 
mctom987 said:
I don't know about the SV, but my '14 SL can be turned off.

That said, it's pretty dangerous to drive at night with no headlights. Especially in an area dark enough for astronomy. Needless to say, I wouldn't recommend doing that. I'd rather piss off a few people than risk something bad happening.

Keep in mind the Leaf doesn't make a lot of external noise, and collisions with wildlife could be more likely, especially if you have no headlights.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind he's only going 100 meters. Since it's standard procedure near an observatory I'm sure they've already worked the situation out so that the dark stretch can be safely navigated with dark-adapted dyes. Or one could always get a cheap pair of night-vision goggles :)

It's not just a matter of "pissing someone off". You could ruin an expensive observing task. Observatory telescope time is very expensive and some observations must run undisturbed for hours on end.
 
mdjones said:
I'm not a Leaf buyer and probably won't be until spring of next year at the earliest but I need to know...

Can the Leaf be driven at night with no headlights on? I see the SV has "auto on/off headlights" and I'm not sure what that all means. I do some amateur astronomy work and headlights are a big no-no at the observatory or in the observing field after dark if other members are there. Otherwise I'd have to find a way to move about 120 pounds of telescope and other gear about 100 meters to and from where I can park with my headlights on.

Any thoughts on this would be helpful. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Definitely on the 2011 and I do have the auto headlight feature (can be turned off). I also turn off the center console LCD display to preserve my own night vision since it can also output a lot of light. The only light i am unable to fully extinguish is the main instrument cluster but it does dim to a pretty low level.
 

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