Why Does YouTube never default to HD?

[GimmeSlack12]

I have my setting changed to choose the highest quality available and yet 720p nor 1080p are every automatically chosen. Does this work for anyone?

Generally I find that 720p is the best choice as 1080p just takes a bit too much to load.

 

[Peteman100]

They're probably trying to save on bandwidth costs and hoping you won't notice