BMW got away from the "smiley" (as in your E34 pic) in favor of the Angel Eyes that perform the same function, starting with facelifted E39 in 2000 models... Ov er time, the city light became more of a fashion statement, as more people bought the cars simply basd on the nice looks of the city lights, aka AE... since than, many car manufacturers started doing it...
Other than that, you are looking at the Daytime Running Lights...