Yeah, ours does that, and as we have ultrasonic reversing sensors, it beeps incessantly when we open the boot (trunk to you) after being to the supermarket for example 

I might see if I can find the feed to the sensor system and put an override switch in there somewhere 

Modern cars bing at you if you've left the lights on when you open the door to get out.
How about a little voice that nags you until you switch the lights on when it's dark...

 EXACTLY !! I'd much rather have the voice be rude and obnoxious ! Something along the likes of "Hey , Luke Skywalker , unless you're using the force to drive , TURN ON YOU BLOODY HEADLIGHTS !!! "

@ Tim: LOVE IT.!

@ Tim - We've always wished we could reprogram the satnav to say "You've gone the wrong way, you stupid bitch..!" when we take a wrong turn 

You do get that with SammiNav though... 

I certainly do 

Rule 113 of the Highway Code states:
you MUST use headlights at night, except on a road which has lit street lighting. These roads are generally restricted to a speed limit of 30 mph (48 km/h), or 20mph (32km/h) in Wales, unless otherwise specified.
How bonkers is that.!!! 

The Highway Code here is just full of ****!  Apparently it tells me, (as a cyclist), that I can ride 1 metre from the kerb, on a busy ‘high traffic’ A road! 
Try doing this in practice in rush hour!, and see how many drivers will quickly loose patience and all concern with your safety!
I’m sure they just want to try and kill everyone using the roads in this country!

@ Tim - We've always wished we could reprogram the satnav to say "You've gone the wrong way, you stupid bitch..!" when we take a wrong turn 

I know a guy that has a Tourette's setting on his!
“TURN NOW MORON” 

@ Rich - Talking of the Highway Code, the next rule up, rule 114, states:

"You MUST NOT
- use any lights in a way that would dazzle or cause discomfort to other road userss, including pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders
- use front or rear fog lights unless visibility is seriously reduced. You MUST switch them off when visibility improves to avoid dazzling other road users (see rule 226)."

It also goes on to say (and this one is my personal pet peeve):

"In stationary queues of traffic, drivers should apply the parking brake and, once the following traffic is stopped, take their foot off the footbrake (my bold/italics) to deactivate the vehicle brake lights. This will minimise glare to road users behind until the traffic moves again."

I really hate that one. Sitting in a queue at the lights with brake riders in front really does my head in. At night, it can take ages for my vision to return so I can see where I'm going clearly 
Sadly that one is only a "should" and not a "MUST" 

My favourite was on my parent's 1995 Jetta. There was an on-off knob switch, but the daytime running lights would have everything on as soon as the key was in the on position. The knob only enabled high beam lights. You had no choice of having the tail lights on in the day or night because they were always lit. If you forgot to "turn on the lights" at night, you could see and be seen.

I had a Volvo 440 that was like that. The DRLs would come on with the ignition. They were actually dimmed headlights rather than separate lamps. You still had to switch the headlamps on manually when you wanted them, but at least the tail lamps came on with the DRLs. Our current car (US imported Buick Encore) has auto headlamps but the tail lights don't come on with the DRLs, only when the headlamps themselves are on, which is annoying. It also didn't come with rear fog lights, which is annoying, but for some reason they're not required in the US but they are in the UK. Fortunately the guy who imported it had one fitted, well he had to really 

@ Rich: Don't get us started on the ridiculous rule where you have to give way to pedestrians when you're leaving a roundabout or main road, that's asking to be hit up the rear.! 

What infuriates me about this stupid country of ours, if you go on the government website about traffic rules, the first thing you’re greeted with is a page header that says “The Highways Act 1835” 

Eighteen Thirty Five!, its 2024 for gods sake, why have we still got traffic rules on the books from 189 years ago!, I know most have been amended, but come on!, most amendments are from the 50s and 80s!, its about time this country came out of the Victorian times and  ‘got with it’ !

…………rant over……… 

Sometimes I think we could do with going back in time. Maybe not to Victorian times, but personally I am acutely aware of the differences between today and when I grew up in the 1960's.

It's not all down to the government (let's be careful with the politics here) but it's just things in general. So-called "health & safety" rules, for example. I've seen crocodiles of school kids out with their teachers on some trip or other, all walking in line wearing little yellow high-viz vests. What..? We never needed them when I was a kid, what's changed

Sammi just found an article on t'interweb where it says that in 2014 a primary school somewhere banned the use of ladders for "health & safety" reasons, so staff had to precariously balance on chairs when accessing high places..! Which reminds me of something that happened to me. I asked for a kickstep, you know, one of those things they often use in libraries, as I had some high shelves in my office that were hard to reach. I was told I couldn't have one as I might fall off it and hurt myself. I could have a step-ladder, though    Yeah, I know, go figure 

I find myself flipping down cheap sunglasses from my head when driving past modern cars at night (my daytime sunglasses are tinted really dark). Around here a lot of people are swapping their halogen headlights with HID or LED conversions. Optics of halogen headlights are designed to reflect and beam the light from the distance of the filament to reflector, and HID does not have that. In my opinion the LED conversions are worse than HID, but they are both painful to oncoming traffic and should be enforced by DOT. Same with LED conversions for tail lights.

I have another rant about aftermarket tail lights not meeting the brightness standard to DOT requirements. I notice that the OEM center brake lights are sometimes brighter than the aftermarket brake lights, and sometimes the brake lights are as bright as driving lights when viewed from the side. Does anyone else see other drivers who tinted their tail lights black?

Let's not go back to the days of people like me (gay) being prosecuted for being gay, the days of apartheid, of McCarthyism etc etc. Cherry pick the good parts, but never forget the crimes against humanity that happened. Rose tinted glasses and such...

We never needed them when I was a kid, what's changed

I can't judge on the area where you grew up, but in general what has changed is that the world has become more and more car-centric, with neighborhoods that are less and less safe for pedestrians from a traffic point of view. In the past decade or so, the number of pedestrian deaths have been skyrocketing in the USA. Though starting in the 70s and all the way up to 2010ish, the safety measures had incredibly good effects in reducing the number of pedestrian deaths - despite the increase in the number of cars. A big improvement came with stricter enforcement of DUIs.

Aside from that, in the 80s and 90s the whole 'stranger danger' and satanic panic (remember the discussions about how evil pokemon and harry potter were?) things happened. This has lead to boomer and gen-x parents of millenial and gen-z children to get hyperfixated on their children's safety when walking around in a group of children. Because every white van is driven by a potential kiddy diddler and of course it's the school's fault if a kid gets dragged into the van.

Stuff like that is obviously incredibly rare, but there truly was a time that it was very very real and significant risk in the eyes of a lot of parents. Of course the real danger is the pastor/reverend/scout leader/that nice teacher lady who is so good with the kids/that kinda weird uncle who always makes those dirty jokes to the kids but who you allow around them regardless becuase he's family etc etc etc.
One thing that absolutely improved in recent times, is that it's now possible to actually speak up against a respected member of a community who turns out to be a horrible person.

That said, wearing vests is a nice way to be able to recognize 'your' gaggle of kids. They do it at a local daycare near me too, where both neighborhood kids and daycare kids come to play on the school's playground. Sometimes it's purely a practical thing. It's not at all a safety thing, those kids are just on their own playground with no traffic around, it's merely so the daycare workers can easily see if 'one of theirs' walks away with the neighborhood kids outside the fence (think 'picket fence' to separate school from public ground, not something you can fence in the kids with).

Sammi just found an article on t'interweb where it says that in 2014 a primary school somewhere banned the use of ladders for "health & safety" reasons

Ladders are among the tools that cause the most accidents. Yes, the humble ladder. A friend of mine broke his spine in a fall. He recovered, but it was intense.

A school banning them does not want to deal with paying for sick leave or get in trouble with OSHA and stuff. In less litigious countries, it's much less of an issue i reckon. At my school one or two kids had welder's eye from looking too much into an UV lamp used for chemical reactions. Teacher warned the kids. Kids ignored the warning. Kids learned what welder's eye feels like. I did warn the teacher that he's definitely taking risks himself - as in risking some parents getting angry and demanding that such "dangerous things" aren't used anymore in chemistry class (where plenty of other dangerous chemicals are used...)

And of course, banning ladders can lead to much more unsafe scenarios. But that's the perverse thing - if you live in a highly litigious place, it might be necessary to ban the things that you can get sued for, even if that makes things objectively worse.
Where i live, they'd laugh in your face if you fall from a ladder at work and try to sue your employer for that. But you *would* get the standard paid sick leave for enough time to recover from all but the worst injuries. Because no one deserves to have their life and finances destroyed in a stupid little ladder accident.
The only thing you could potentially sue for over here, is if the ladder turned out to be objectively faulty and hadn't been through the yearly OSHA tools-at-work inspection.