Cars flashing me at night

Never - 'tis unusual. Do you have a portable GPS you can double check your speed. Mine reads 2km/hr fast (ie at an indicated 100km/hr, I'm only doing 98).

The headlights on AUTO - I assume that if you were in an extremely bright environment, they might turn off? Not sure how you'd know. It does the opposite in daylight - occasionally driving under an overpass, the headlights turn ON thinking it's DARK.

The other thing - it isn't your auto-dimming rear view mirror dipping on and off?

 

Until I moved to the USA back in 1983, I lived and drove in the UK, and one driving rule not found in The Highway-Code¹, was that you warned on-coming traffic with a flick of the high-beams if you passed a radar-trap or a lurking police-car tucked away waiting for an unsuspecting target, so I think I might interpret other drivers flashing at me as a warning to look out for potential trouble ahead!

¹ The Highway Code - Wikipedia

 

Maybe they flash you because the license plate lights don't work?
If they flash at you while *behind* you, you are either driving too slow compared to traffic (regardless of speed limit) and they see a Prius and think "oh my" and flash you, or some other reason I cannot really think of.
I have the car since June, I was never flashed from behind once.

 

This is gonna sound stupid, but there have been times in several of my cars that I've been driving along with brain in neutral and have flashed my mains when I've really intended to wash the screen. Unlikely coincidences if that was the case here. My guess is that it's just anti-Prius behaviour.

 

I have been flashed at from behind a few time from the so called "Cowboy Cadillacs" (aka BIG pickup trucks) here in Oklahoma if they think I am impeding their need for speed so to speak. I just ignore them...

 

I think you need to have someone you know drive behind you for a while and actually SEE what the problem is.
Maybe there is a loose connection causing your tail lights to flash.
OR maybe you are a "left foot" braker and your brake lights stay on because you are dragging the brakes.
OR maybe the backup lights come on when the car is in D.

 

That makes me wonder if the rear fogs are coming on

 

Do North-American-market Prii even have rear fog lights? Such seem very rare over here, I've noticed them only on a few European brands.

 

They do not.

 

Most don't have front fog lights.

 

Any reports of fog at all over there?

 

Yes and sometimes in the driver's brain too.

 

I think fog lights are a throwback from the late seventies when most British cars had poor or small rear lights. Personally I don't think they're necessary nowadays with the excellent lights most modern cars have.

 

And the Gen 4 fog lights are no good in fog anyway.

 

I had them on some early VOLVOs and they were great in fog. A very flat beam aimed low under the fog so it didn't reflect back into your eyes

But on most newer cars, they're pathetic, poorly designed - purely for appearance.

 

I've come to believe that most modern factory fog lights are decorations designed to be 50-state legal, including in a couple states were real fog lights are not legal.

The so-called 'fog' lights on my one car with factory fogs were greatly inferior to the Bosch Pilots I installed on two previous cars.

 

How do you know if you don't have them on the back????