My daughter was driving our Mazda after dark and got pulled over by the police, receiving a citation for driving without her tail lights on. She showed the police officer that the wand was set to "AUTO" for lights and that her headlamps were on, but she still got a ticket. We conducted our own investigation, trying to get the problem to repeat in the driveway and then also out driving on the road, however the problem would not repeat. This is a tough one to get fixed since it appears intermittent. We plan to take the car to the Mazda dealer to see if they can help us.

Update from Jan 22, 2021: Update: Our Mazda dealer investigated the problem and found that "all tail lights ... are working properly". Obviously, they aren't. We just hope we don't get into a serious accident or don't get too many more tickets.

I was driving at night behind my daughter, who was driving our Mazda when I was astonished to see that she didn't have her tail lights on. I called her and told her to put them on, but she said that she already had her lights on. Following her in the dark I could see that yes, her headlamps were on, and also that her rear brake lights were working. I have no idea why the headlamps would illuminate but not the tail lights.

I believe (but am not absolutely sure) that her wand setting was on "AUTO". The next day, we tried to get the problem to repeat but everything seemed to be working just fine. Just to be safe we decided to limit our use to the "MANUAL" wand setting for the lights when driving at night.