Especially when weather conditions are variable, as in winter, you may find yourself following a car or truck with a bright red light that is always illuminated, regardless of what its brake lights are doing. Those little red lights are the rear fog lamps. If you’re an American, you’ll be forgiven for not knowing such a light exists on many cars and trucks. Not everyone is privy to UN Regulation 48, which spells out lighting and lighting-signaling equipment standards to which vehicles sold in European countries must adhere.
The regulation is spelled out in a 128-page document by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. About 10 pages of it are dedicated to prattling off definitions for words such as “lamp,” “light source,” and “ground.”** There are also guidelines for the intensity and function of rear fog lamps, which are required in European countries.
In general, a vehicle can be equipped with two or just one of the rear lights, but if there is just one, it must be on the driver’s side. We checked some of the European vehicles in our fleet and, sure enough, they had a little rear fog lamp switch or button, not far from where you find the toggle for the front fog lights. Here’s what that switch looks like on a 2016 Range Rover Td6 diesel:
And here’s what it does:
See that bright red light at the bottom of the taillamp?
Here’s the setup on a 2017 Audi A6 2.0T, which has a button on the bottom left:
And here is what it looks like on the car’s rear:
Here’s one more example, seen on the stalk of a 2017 Volvo XC90:
As on the Audi, the top button is for the front fog lights; the bottom is for the rear. And here is its resulting function:
The rear fog light is meant to be piercing so that, when driving in fog, the vehicle can be seen by the motorists behind it. In the United Kingdom, for example, British highway code says you should turn the rear fog lights on if visibility drops below 100 meters, or about 330 feet.
These seriously bright lights are typically not automatic, and if they’re left on all the time—as seems to be the habit among many owners of these vehicles—they can be annoying or even confusing to motorists driving behind the car. So please, if you’re in a car equipped with a button with a half circle-with-a-wavy-line icon, and there is no heavy fog on the moor, remember to turn the rear fog lights off, especially at night when they can be downright blinding in clear weather. Our seared retinas will thank you.
**UN Regulation 48’s definition of “ground” was too good for us not to share with readers, and we want you to know what it is: “The surface on which the vehicle stands which should be substantially horizontal.”
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