Light fantastic? Er, no

Just had my first experience of headlights that automatically swap between main and dipped beam, a feature on the 2012 model year Jaguar XF (pictured). You might wonder why I’ve not come across this before, and the reason is that on launch events – unless you get seriously lost – you never drive at night. Me and the Jag had an eight-mile trip down the A14 dual carriageway at about 11pm on Sunday night and the auto-function kicked in. Sensors scan the road ahead for movement and light, and if they find none they switch to main beam. As soon as they spot something coming the other way, or a vehicle overtakes you, they select dipped. Clearly it’s very clever, but actually I have to say I didn’t really like it. It must have flicked between the two options 30 times in the space of those eight miles, and sometimes staying on one for just a couple of seconds before switching back. Had I been controlling it myself I doubt I would have been close to half that number. The theory is it will help road safety by improving the driver’s vision, and maybe you get used to it, but I found it quite irritating. It’s a feature I could live without.