[SmithR]

That's definitely a rough place to be in with the auto high beams, sorry to hear that happened to you.

There are apparently a few ways for the "IntelliBeam" lights to not work effectively, and your situation is one of them.

General Motors IntelliBeam Technology

IntelliBeam is a General Motors lighting technology that automatically turns the vehicle's high-beam headlamps on and off according to surrounding traffic conditions. How It Works IntelliBeam turns on a vehicle's high-beam headlamps when it[...]

gmauthority.com

Unfavorable Conditions

The vehicle’s high beams may not turn off automatically if the system cannot detect other vehicle’s lamps because of any of the following:

• The other vehicle’s lamps are missing, damaged, obstructed from view, or otherwise undetected
• The other vehicle’s lamp are covered with dirt, snow, and/or road spray
• The other vehicle’s lamp(s) cannot be detected due to dense exhaust, smoke, fog, snow, road spray, mist, or other airborne obstructions.
• Your vehicle’s windshield is dirty, cracked, or obstructed by something that blocks the view of the light sensor
• Your vehicle’s windshield is covered with ice, dirt, haze, or other obstructions
• Your vehicle is loaded such that the front end points upward, causing the light sensor to aim high and not detect headlamps and taillamps
• You are driving on winding or hilly roads

If any of the above conditions exist, you may need to manually disable or cancel the high-beam headlamps by turning the low-beam headlamps on.

 

[SmithR]

I think I might just disable them all together. It is a quick flip of the lever to turn the high beams on if I need them.

That's fair, it will definitely avoid problems like this going forward. It's not a big thing to turn off either, I've never had an issue with using my highbeams manually.

 

[SmithR]

Sure sounds like something we should keep on a list of Blazer Hacks for all owners and future owners.

For sure, hopefully something like this situation doesn't happen to anyone else.

 

[SmithR]

Me either. It is one of those features that I thought I would like but I think was designed for those drivers that do not pay attention to their dash and even know or care if their brights/high beams are on blinding the drivers in front of them and never turn them off when they should.

That's very true, it was definitely designed for casual drivers. But on the other side of this situation, what was the other guy doing driving in the dark without his lights on?

 

[SmithR]

My Sister in Law has newer Hyundai Santa Fe that has LED DRL and Auto Headlights and she purposely turns off her DRLs every time she gets in the car and has the automatic lights disabled. She says the car should not decide for her when the lights should go on. The funny part of this story is she got a ticket earlier this year when it was pouring rain and did not have her headlights on and it is state law that head lights or DRL have to be active when it is raining out. I couldn't help but remind her that is why they make modern cars with DRL and automatic lights.

That just seems unnecessarily complicated lol. Did the ticket change her mind or is she still doing the same thing?