Table of Contents
Switching To High Beams By Stomping On A Button In The Floor
| Field | Changing brightness of automobile headlights |
| Went Obsolete | 1980s |
| Made Obsolete By | Moving the high-beam control to the steering wheel |
| Knowledge Assumed | Using a foot switch |
| When useful | When you were approaching another automobile |
High beam headlight switches used to be a heavy button, mounted high on the floor on the driver's side of a car or truck. They were mounted there due to the relatively large wire size that used to be required to switch from high to low beams, and the relative idleness of the left foot in cars with automatic transmissions.
In the early 1980s, more and more controls (wipers, washers, headlight controls, dash brightness controls, and the like) were moved to the steering wheel area. Although there are still some issues with conformity from manufacturer to manufacturer, especially on 'foreign' cars, the general intention was to make driving easier.
