Is it just me or are most reverse lights borderline useless ?   Out of all of the cars I currently own maybe 2 have reverse lights that actually light the area behind the vehicle ! I'm not saying that reverse lights need to be headlight bright but they should be brighter than the brake lights and should fully light the area behind the vehicle when backing .

I don't really think they're meant to be reversing headlights, I think they're just meant to indicate to people behind that you're heading in their direction..!

What I don't understand is the fact that rear foglamps aren't required in the US (not sure about Canada). They're mandatory here and the original owner of my car had to have one fitted.

 They don't need to be that bright , just bright enough to see where you're going when reversing as well as being seen by other people and vehicles .

 As for the rear fogs , some cars here DO have them (usually models that are available both here and in Europe) I don't know why they're not required here (fog lights aren't actually required here either) Usually , what ever laws or design specs arise over there eventually find their way here  such as composite headlights , halogen lighting , stability control , etc.

 When the aerodynamic , composite headlights arrived here in the mid 80's they were often referred to as Euro style headlights .

What I don’t like is how a lot of newer cars turn on the reverse lights as part of the illuminated entry system when you unlock the doors.

As a pedestrian, when I see reverse lights on, I stop because I think they’re going to back into me! Only for me to realize their engine isn’t even running!

Yeah that annoys me as well, my car does it and of course the reverse parking sensors activate as well, so when you're loading shopping in the back it's bleeping at you all the time..! 

Truth be told my car is angled up towards the rear windshield, seeing out there is bad and I don't have a backup camera. The reverse lights are thus mostly useless for me. Fortunately my year of back in parking at my high school has made me a master of using my mirrors and doing the old prop your arm behind the passenger seat and looking back trick.

 AH , General Motors and their wonderful battery killer ideas!

What I don't understand is the fact that rear foglamps aren't required in the US (not sure about Canada). They're mandatory here and the original owner of my car had to have one fitted.

To be honest, I do not see that much use for them. Yes, they may help to make the car visible for a bit longer distance, but already with regular tail light that is already far beyond the general visibility in a given fog, so it only makes "drivers" to feel like they can see further than they really can see and consequently drive insanely fast for the condition, smashing into something that does not have lights, like pedestrians and so on.
And where they are really counterproductive is at dark: There they just create a red wall blocking any remaining bits of visibility ahead of the car in front of you that has them on.

But what I do see as a problem is, the "daylight running lights" do not turn the tail lights with them. Consequence is, many drivers forget to turn the main headlights on (mainly in brightly lit cities, or generally because even just the DRL are providing quite sufficient front illumination for slower speeds) and so many cars then drive at night without any tail lights on.
And along the fact that headlights do not have any signal light on the dash whatsoever, it is becoming a problem in the rain - mainly with automatic headlights you have no idea if the main headlights did turn ON or did not. If the tail lights were on also with the DRL, neither of these problems would be problem at all, as if the visibility is good for the driver (that is for his personal judgement and exact conditions), for others it does not matter at all, whether the car has main headlights, or just DRL on at the front... And it would not require anything more complex nor sophisticated in the car automation...
The argument "It is to save power/gas/CO2 emission" is really a BS, with the tail lights consuming barely 2..3W with the LEDs (or even the 10..20W with older incandescents makes no difference at all)

Reversing vehicle’s here are beginning to annoy me!  , first of all it started with commercial trucks with a reverse bleeper, fine, then the new ones sounded like a seagull being repeatedly stood on!, “haaark-haaark-haaark”! 🤣🤣🤣, now the new thing, (also being fitted to every delivery van it seems today), is some irritating posh British bloke, accompanied by a loud beep!, “BEEEEEP, Stand well clear, vehicle reversing……….BEEEEEP, Stand well clear, vehicle reversing….”!, I hate that! 

Some guy at work has it on his van, and I’m sure he puts it in reverse, then sits there on his phone just to annoy people before he get out of the space!

 The new "seagull" reverse alarms are referred as "white noise" alarms . They're supposed to be more easily identified than the old "BEEP , BEEP , BEEP" which some people tend to just drown out and ignore . I found a video of the talking version on YouTube...I'd be looking for a hammer !!!!

 @ MedVed : I actually agree with you about both the rear fog lights and the DRLs . I've found them a bit blinding on some cars depending on where the factory installed them . Some cars have them low in the bumper while some have them in with the taillight cluster. The low ones aren't near as bad . As for the DRLs , it couldn't cost much extra to install a light sensor with some form of warning light in the dash or just make automatic lamps standard equipment ! My 2003 Mercury has automatic lights which also turn on whenever you activate the wipers . Lights on when the wipers are on is actually a law in some states here .

Very interesting information!, I’ve always associated white noise with a sound that can cancel other sounds?, which makes total sense for a reverse alarm.

The beeping was nonsense measure from the start, once you have more than one piece of equipment with it, or moving more often than once a day and when you can not immediately stop what you are doing and looking for it, it gets completely nonfunctional (just because you can not locate the beeping source by hearing only), it just remain super annoying and so caused loss of focus of all people around (so making the safety level actually worse on the site).
Shameful is, this limitation had to be known from the getgo (effects of similar sounds were studied way before WW2), yet still regulators pushed it through as a claimed "safety measure". It just allowed the "We did our part, we can not be responsible for people not paying attention" excuses...

Heh. The worst one we've heard was on a Greggs delivery van. It was in a queue of traffic for a T junction and signalling to turn left. Along with the flashing indicators was a stentorian voice announcing at 10 second intervals - 

"WARNING..! This Greggs vehicle is turning left..! WARNING..! This Greggs vehicle is turning left..! WARNING..! This Greggs vehicle is turning left..!"

AAAAARRRGGGHHHHH..!!!!! 

   , what happened also to the rising and falling quick beep they use to have on bin wagons?

@ Rommie: i AIN'T 'AVING IT.!! WHERE'S ME 'AMMER.?!