Many pride themselves on their driving prowess – often considering themselves to be the epitome of cool, calm and highly perceptive when it comes to getting behind the wheel.
However, even the most experienced drivers can find themselves puzzled by certain car features. There are plenty of them to remember, after all!
Showing just how confusing motors can be at times, debate about a car button was recently sparked on Reddit. A user posted the query: “What does this button do?”
Accompanying the question was an image of a button with a symbol resembling a glowing light. And it certainly got a lot of people talking.
Lots of people have since offered their suggestions. From the sensible to the absolutely wild – people had all sorts of ideas as to what the symbol actually means.
One person said: “Fog light. Not for use mist light mist, haze, drizzle, sleet, overcast, wet or perfectly sunny days. Use it in fog. Somehow this is confusing for a lot of drivers.”
Another quipped: “Press that when you are being followed. It deploys a smoke screen that will allow you to disappear in a dramatic fashion. Also a rear fog light.”
A third replied: “That looks like a rear fog light switch. If it’s front the lines dip down.” Meanwhile, a fourth also commented: “My friend failed her test for not being able to put the fog lights on when the examiner asked so learn where they are guys!!!”
It’s important to know that there are different fog light indicators, and none of them look exactly the same. The symbols vary slightly depending on whether the button is for high beam, low beam, front fog lights or rear fog lights.
The one pictured in the post is actually the rear fog light button, and some people were quick to point this out in the comments. Many weren’t surprised that people didn’t know what it was actually for.
One chimed in with: “I would guess a very large proportion of ‘qualified drivers’ don’t know this.” Another wrote: “Rear fog light, used when visibility is 100 meters or less. You must switch it off when it clears.
“ETA. To the right of the fog switch is a switch that rolls. That’s the brightness of your dash. More importantly, next to that will be another rolling switch with 0-5 on it.”
“That is the pitch of your headlights and should always be on zero unless you’re towing something. Back in my youth I sold cars for 13 years. The number of part exchanges that came in with that set above zero was astonishing.”