Cornering Foglights
 

Apparently it's not that new a thing (Mercedes have done it for a while and some others) but I've only recently been noticing it and what it is... When turning or indicating the corresponding fog light comes on too.

Is it just me or does it look silly, like you've put your fog lights on but one doesn't work and that it it's not so easy to see their indicator when approaching? I've nothing against a proper cornering light, but using the fog light seems/looks a little cheap and a somewhat half hearted effort. :Confused:

Funny you should mention Mercedes, I've noted a number of Mercs over the years with a single fog light on and just assumed it is poor build quality rather than intentional! It does look odd.

There is an option in VCDS that allows you to do this on some audis as well, I know the mk2 TT and B8 A4 do, sure there is many others as well.

I suppose a lot of it depends on what your fog lights look like in the first place but I think it's a good idea

I also remember seeing it on an old Top Gear episode where they drove people home from a night out (they had motorbikes that could fit in the boot of a car). James May was driving an A Class and always seemed to have only one fog light on!

Haven't heard of cornering fog lights before.

I suppose if it helps to better illuminate the road you're turning on to it might have its benefits (though DS-esque turning headlights would be better). I have noticed a lot of newer vehicles now turn off the corresponding headlight though (presumably to make the indicator more noticeable), which seems completely counterproductive to lighting the way.

Just last week (driving the Touareg). Pulled away from kerb then waited for someone to cross. He came over to the drivers window and thoughtfully let me know that only one of the fog lights was working.
Using foglights. That's how you do cornering lights badly. They don't illuminate where you're about to turn into anywhere as well as the dedicated cornering lights on the 8.
They also use this cheapskate method on some Beemers

I'm glad to say that the turning headlights on my Volvo seem to do it "correctly". But I guess you would expect that. ;)

A lot of French tat does this too, as well as some Skodas iirc. I think it looks dumb although having never driven anything with it I can't say whether it helps or not.

My Dad's C-class has funky headlight lenses which can change the beam pattern so that works more like the DS and points the beam in the direction you're turning :)

facelift D3's have cornering lights built in to the headlights as standard i believe.
cars with the fog lights doing the same job are as common as muck these days.

The Infiniti has proper DS-esque swivelling headlights, at first I thought it was a gimmick but on some of our local twisty roads it is a real help. Lights up the corner before you turn in and gives you a couple of seconds extra illumination.

Bosch and Hella used to sell spotlamps/foglamps with a 'cornering' function built in - used accelerometers and an extra bulb to bend the beam in to the corner you were turning in to. Very expensive from memory.

...Quote from Hella USA:

Combining a driving beam with a cornering beam, the DynaView cornering light from Hella might be just the ticket for night drivers. These beams automatically light up a corner as you turn into it, activated automatically using an electronic control unit called IntelliBeam, which measures, Hella tells us, the lateral acceleration of your vehicle. On straight road, the cornering light is automatically switched off. The DynaView is offered in 12- and 24-volt versions and is supplied with a custom wiring harness. Contact: Hella, Dept. FW, 201 Kelly Dr., Peachtree City, GA 30269, 770/631-7500, www.hellausa.com.

We have a 2017 KIA Sorento :-( and it also has adaptive foward lighting like our 2006 A8. The KIA lights swivel with the speed and steering like the A8 but unlike the A8, the seperate cornering lights are garbage. It is just a fog light that comes on with the indicator - speed and steering angle have no bearing on it so it doesn't work well on roundabouts and turns off early at junctions, the beam is not very good either. The A8's also fade on and off. KIA's is a Mickey mouse implementation.

We once had an '02 C class Merc., the lighting was quite advanced compared to the A8, the lighting controller was called SAM.
If a bulb has blown, it would substitute another and display a message in the DIS, such as "Front left indicator malfunction, using foglamp as subsitute" and the foglight would flash.. Same goes for headlights etc.. If a highbeam bulb is blown, when flashing high beams it would flash the dipped on that side. Sadly, in those days the Merc quality was terrible, so this function was utilised quite often due to water ingress and bulbholder corrosion.

Would my a8 2008 have cornering lights of any sort ? The lights move down and up when you start the car but I'm not sure what type of light they are.

Many D3 bi-xenon lights move up and down when you first start the car, but the cornering lights function would be visible when you look at the headlight unit in daytime as a bulb and reflector that face sideways and located on the side of the inner beam reflector that faces the outer beam reflector

So was that an extra on the a8 ?

Standard on some, option of varying cost on others.

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Absolutely pointless and silly.
It's called a fog light, hardly anything to do with cornering.
It's like telling people that now V8s come with a fixed frying pan for a morning fry up (eggs, beans and bacon) by opening the bonnet and placing all the ingredients on the inlet manifold but only after at least 30min of fast driving.