{"id":2935,"date":"2026-01-30T04:15:57","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T04:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.way.com\/ask\/?p=2935"},"modified":"2026-01-30T04:15:57","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T04:15:57","slug":"what-are-parking-lights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.way.com\/ask\/what-are-parking-lights\/","title":{"rendered":"What are parking lights?\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The parking lights, or sidelights, are usually installed on the front and rear at the corners of the car. The control for these lights varies based on the car make. In popular makes such as Toyota, Honda, Ford, Nissan, etc., you can turn it on using the rotary dial on the dashboard or steering column. <\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The cars with European-style controls, the parking light switch is located on the steering column stalk\/lever.<\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Tesla uses touch screen control \u2013 lights \u2013 parking mode to turn on the side light. <\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span data-contrast=\"auto\">When should you put the parking lights on? <\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">You should turn on the parking lights when the car is parked on poorly lit\/unlit roads or on narrow streets. They are used only for parking. Laws in states like California and Florida explicitly prohibit using these lights in place of headlights under any condition, even during twilight hours. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">All the same, Alaska and Indiana mandate that cars parked on roadways or shoulders must have these lights turned on at night. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Are parking lights the same as taillights?\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">No, the functions of both taillights and parking lights are different. While it needs to be turned on separately, the taillight lights up when the headlamps are turned on. Also, taillights are meant to make your moving car visible during low or no-light conditions. On the other hand, these lights are used to mark that the car is parked and not in motion.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Do parking lights drain the car&#8217;s battery?\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Normally, a healthy battery is supposed to light up low-power parking lights for several hours. All the same, leaving the lights on for more than 24 hours might lead to battery drain, eventually. <\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The parking lights, or sidelights, are usually installed on the front and rear at the corners of the car. The control for these lights varies based on the car make. In popular makes such as Toyota, Honda, Ford, Nissan, etc., you can turn it on using the rotary dial on the dashboard or steering column.&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.way.com\/ask\/what-are-parking-lights\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">What are parking lights?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-parking","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What are parking lights?\u00a0\u00a0 - ask<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Parking lights helps other drivers to see a parked car in roadways and narrow street. Read to know more about parking lights.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.way.com\/ask\/what-are-parking-lights\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What are parking lights?\u00a0\u00a0 - ask\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Parking lights helps other drivers to see a parked car in roadways and narrow street. 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