Couple lighting questions

For the dash dimmer, I can't speak directly to the 'c'. But the Liftback dash dimmer has a stop just before full brightness position, and must be forceably clicked over that stop to reach the daytime brightness position.

Running the full set of lights will affect fuel economy, that is just basic physics because energy isn't free. But it is small enough to be difficult for us commoners to accurately measure. Computations in several past threads suggest that it should be somewhat less than 1 mpg at highway speed on a Prius Liftback at 60 mph, possibly reaching several mpg in heavy stop-and-go city street conditions, where the car spends a lot of time not moving while the lights are still on and consuming energy.

 

You can turn your brightness up by turning the brightness knob up past the hard click to make it daytime brightness.

The headlights and taillights together use about 1.5A extra from the traction battery. To compare, the A/C uses about 8-9A. The A/C is all electric in this car. It doesn't sound like much - but it's still not free. The car will have to re-charge the battery slightly sooner.

You have a Prius C Three - you can disable the daytime running lights using the stereo. Hit setup, and then go into vehicle settings. In this menu you can disable DRL, change the door lock settings, and beep.

 

I thought that the Package 3 didn't have fog lights...

The daytime running lights should be two white circles on the front of the car near where the beams are I think, they're not yellow like fog lights would be. Am I missing something?

 

Your dash light question is answered. Here is one inexpensive way to tame taillights:
Blacked Out Tail Lights | Page 2 | PriusChat
post #36

 

In addition to that, my '13 C3 has a DRL position right on the headlight switch and OFF is everything off.
Something is amiss here.

And for the subject in general........having your actual headlights on all the time will make the bulbs go out about twice as fast AND make your brake lights harder to notice for the people behind you. This is why DRL was invented in the first place.

 

That is also why the third brake light, mounted high in the center, was added back in 1986. Brake light problem solved.

 

Maybe. But some of those aren't very bright in the daylight AND.......I've seen some vehicles lately that are screwing with the "eye level" requirement for those and they end up just a couple of inches above the actual brake lights.

 

Those "yellowish" DRL are highbeam bulbs at reduced power. There are several advantages to using them vs the regular headlights when driving around during the day.

The lowbeam projectors have shields in them to prevent glare toward oncoming traffic. These limit the visibility of them as DRLs where you want maximum angle of light dispersion. The highbeam reflectors don't have any physical cut-off shields and are designed to throw light up at a higher angle than the lowbeams. Also, that yellowish color you don't like has several advantages. One, it is much more visible in full, bright sun than a whiter light. Natural sunlight is white, not yellow, so the yellow color contrasts not blends in. That's why the amber DRLs on GM cars like older Corvettes and Cadillacs were very visible. Two, the highbeam bulbs aren't being powered at full power, so they run cooler and last longer than your lowbeams during the day. Three, they use less power than running all your running lights and your lowbeams. Four, if a bulb burns out, it's your highbeam bulbs, you still have your lowbeams available for night driving.

Turn on your regular lights in poor visibility conditions for visibility to those to your rear. Some say whenever you use your wipers, but I do only in heavy rain.

Our 2011 hatchback didn't have factory DRLs, so I ended up putting in a DRL module to have the reduced power highbeam DRLs you have oem (link in my signature below). One thing you might consider, is to change out your highbeam 9005 bulbs from clear bulbs to yellow bulbs. That will make the DRLs less orangeish and more yellow, which IMO looks better as DRLs.

 

There's no limit to the number of incremental hazard controls you could add to a car. If the entire rear surface of every car were covered with pulsating colored lights, the statistics would probably show a reduction in collisions. This was the reason for the sudden introduction of the third stop-light in 1986. If technology is to compensate for our own lack of care and attention, it should be able to avoid collisions and disable a car being driven by an intoxicated driver. Personally, I think it's impossible to make enough rules to protect us from our own stupidity.

 

Wow! I don't know about Canada, but here in the U.S. we have so many federal laws that the library of congress claims that it is impossible to count them all:
Frequent Reference Question: How Many Federal Laws Are There? | In Custodia Legis: Law Librarians of Congress

That does not include all the federal regulations , state laws, rules nor local ordinances, etc.
Personally, I think we have waaaaaaaaaay too many rules, and if we had fewer, we might be counted on to rely on our own intelligence more frequently. I prefer not to think of myself as stupid.

The technology already exists to disable a vehicle when blood alcohol levels are above the legal limit and the driver must breathe into a device before being allowed to start the vehicle. Collision avoidance is available in many vehicles as well. You just have to pay for it. I much prefer to have control of my vehicle rather than rely on technology to control it for me. I enjoy driving and being in control rather than being driven and controlled.

Freedom and liberty used to be so dear. Now they are frittered away in the name of security and safety. And I'm not just talking about vehicles.