Samaritan Lights

Here is a good samaritan story that has happened to me a few times.

I was in a parking lot and someone has left their car. They left the lights on.  I tell the person, wondering if their car is the kind that automatically turns the lights off.  They inform me that the lights will go off in a couple minutes.

Who invented that lame feature anyway?  Why is it useful?  Every time this happens to me I feel like such a shmuck, and I wonder how many times those people get warned that their lights are on.