I’ve been seeing this a lot lately and saw it twice on my way home from work last night, once on an expressway. It seems to always be newish SUVs from US manufacturers. The cars are driving at night with headlights and even fog lights on (with no fog in sight) but no tail lights! They are completely blacked out from the rear which seems really dangerous. I understand that this is just a case of idiot drivers but why would any manufacturer enable this practice by allowing such a light setting for any vehicle? Are they trying to improve gas mileage by eliminating the power drain required to light up the tail lights???
Saw this same situation recently while driving in the rain. Newer Mazda SUV, front headlights on, front and rear wipers on, dash lit up, taillights on? Nope!
The headlights can’t be on if the taillights are off. You meant DRL’s, not headlights.