Thomas Folse climbed into a brand new Chevrolet Equinox, went looking for the headlight switch, and found nothing on the dash or the stalk. The control had been moved onto the infotainment screen. He did not take this development well.
Thomas Folse (@thomasfolse), a 26-year-old Tennessee car enthusiast and occasional flipper, posted his reaction to the change. It has drawn more than 23,400 views as of this writing.
“I just got a brand new Equinox. Guess where the headlight controls are. In the screen,” he says. “What the hell. I hate that. I hate that so much.” His caption is four hashtags, two of which are #trash and #gm.
The TikTok pans across the display, where a row of lighting icons sits along the top of the home screen: Off and Auto are lit up in green, followed by symbols for the parking lights and headlights. Underneath are the app tiles for Vehicle Status, Play Store, Settings, Audio and the rest.
Chevrolet Put It In Writing
He isn’t misunderstanding the situation. The Equinox owner’s manual says, “The headlight control is located on the infotainment screen.” It adds, “Touch the O symbol, then select any of the following options.”
Off turns the exterior lights off. Auto “controls the exterior lights and instrument panel lights depending on outside lighting.” One symbol turns on the parking lights, and another turns on “the exterior lights such as headlights, taillights, parking lights, and license plate lights, plus the instrument panel lights.”
The manual also says headlights “can also be activated in the Controls & Safety app,” reached by touching the Controls icon on the home screen, then See More Controls, then Lights, then Headlights.
Setting a reminder that tells you the headlights are off when it’s dark is its own trip through that menu.
Gallery: 2025 Chevrolet Equinox Review
What Stayed On The Stalk?
Not everything moved. High beams still work the way they always have. According to the manual’s instructions: “Push the turn signal lever away from you and release, to turn the high beams on. To return to low beams, push the lever again or pull it toward you and release.”
That matters, because safety bodies have started pushing back on touchscreens and are specific about which controls they want under a driver’s hand.
Euro NCAP, the European safety rating organization, added an assessment of physical controls to its 2026 protocols, and its test procedure for driver controls, published in 2025, lists the functions it expects to find as a “direct physical input (e.g. button, pedal, switch, etc.)”: direction indicators, hazard lights, the horn, front and rear wipers, the gear selector, and full beam, which it expects “on steering wheel or in area directly behind steering wheel on left side.”
The main headlight switch is not on that list. High beams are, which may be why that is still controlled by a lever on the Equinox.
While Euro NCAP does not have authority over the US market, its regulations carry significant weight throughout the automotive industry.
‘Bring Back Buttons’
The comments revealed a deep reservoir of discontent about changes in vehicles’ user interfaces.
“New cars are straight up unsafe now,” wrote zeegee8385, in the most-liked reply. Crenshaw28 added, “That seems like a safety issue to me. Not able to easily access the lights on the vehicle.” Grahamjefferson demanded that manufacturers “bring back buttons.”
A significant group of commenters told him to stop worrying and leave the car on Auto, which is where GM appears to be nudging motorists. Folse explained why the setting doesn’t suit him. “I drive with my headlights on all the time, because I live where there are a ton of trees and curves,” he wrote. Today_on_podcast raised a related objection: the automatic system doesn’t come on early enough for a tunnel, “and my astigmatism.”
Owners of other GM products chimed in with their views on the new layout. “Got a Colorado and same thing. Have to go in the screen to turn fog lights on,” wrote michaelparana710.
Motor1 reached out to Folse via TikTok direct message for comment. We’ll be sure to update this if he responds.
