Daytime running lights

I just have to say, I hate daytime running lights (DRL) on cars. Or more accurately, I hate automatic daytime running lights. Why you ask?

1. The thing that annoys me the most is the fact that you have no control over your headlights. It's not very often, but there are times when I want to turn off my headlights, but with automatic DRL I can't. There's one family member, when we visit them we like to sneak up to their house to surprise them. But when we show up at night it's hard to sneak up with your headlights on.
   
2. Most of the time DRL is unnecessary. There are some roads where having your lights on is a good safety feature, mostly county roads. But most of the time people are driving city streets or freeways where having the headlights on does no good.
   
3. It wastes energy and causes pollution. With the lights the drain on your alternator increases which in turn decreases your gas mileage. Admittedly it's not much, but it adds up. I don't know exactly, but let's guesstimate that headlights on lowers your fuel economy by 1/10th of a mile per gallon. Now let's assume the average car gets 25 miles per gallon. And finally let's assume an average of 15,000 miles per year. If you do the math this comes out to 3 extra gallons of gas per year. Again it's not much, but that's $12 in gas. Also, let's look at the big picture. There are over 250 million cars in the US. If you assume only half of those have DRL, that works out to $1.5 billion in extra gas each year. Not to mention all the extra pollution.
   
4. Because the headlights turn on automatically, so some people fail to turn on their lights when driving at night. Just this evening I saw a car on the freeway. The headlights were on because of DRL, but the driver didn't turn on the vehicle lights so the tail lights were dark. Talk about safety hazard.
   
5. Believe it or not, headlights on during the day can in some cases actually decrease safety. In WWII the US mounted lights on the leading edges of their fighter plans. When the plane was diving to attack a target they would turn the lights on. Because the sky behind them was bright, the lights make the plane harder to see. So if your headlights are on and you come over a hill, your vehicle against the sky behind is harder for oncoming traffic to see thanks to DRL.
   
6. DRL has to wear out the bulbs faster. Any light bulb, the more you leave that light on the quicker it burns out. So with DRL surely headlights burn out faster. I don't have any proof of this, but it makes sense.
   

I think manufactures should stop adding DRL as a feature to new cars. My truck has it, but fortunately it can be turned off. However, my wife's car has always-on DRL. I've gone so far as to research how to disable it. While it is possible, it requires cutting wires under the dash which I'm sure would void the warranty.