What's the news?
Mercedes is upgrading its intelligent beam headlamps to a new level, which it is calling Digital Light.
The system uses more than two million 'micromirrors' spread across the two high-definition headlight clusters to ensure that the maximum amount of forward illumination is available to the driver, without dazzling other road users.
It builds on existing LED headlight technology offered by Mercedes - and other car manufacturers - whereby parts of the main beam field can be selectively dipped to ensure that oncoming cars aren't blinded by glare, or that vehicles ahead don't get a rear-view mirror full of blazing light.
Digital Light works by using camera- and radar-based sensors mounted in the front of the vehicle to scan the road ahead, with detection of other road users happening in milliseconds. Algorithms developed by Mercedes itself can then determine what brightness level every single one of the two million 'pixels' in the headlamps needs to be at to ensure the best visibility for the Merc driver and the maximum comfort to other people's eyes.
It's not only for Mercedes drivers' benefit that the company has developed Digital Light, though, as - taking its lead from the futuristic F015 concept car that debuted this technology - the system can do more than just shine lots of light into the dark. Mercedes says it could even guide and support a driver through 'critical situations', like driving through narrow roadworks, that it could even project light traces onto the road to replace missing road markings, or it can beam various data onto the ground and to other road users - such as a zebra crossing for pedestrians, for example.
It's incredibly clever stuff. Although we can't imagine replacement Digital Light micromirrors will be inexpensive to buy down at your local Halfords...
Anything else?
Gunter Fischer, head of exterior body development and vehicle operating systems at Daimler AG, said: "The decisive factor is not the technology in the headlamp but the digital intelligence behind it. With our Digital Light strategy we are not only striving for beam records, rather we want to achieve optimum vision and maximum brightness without glare. Innovative functions for supporting the driver and staging communication with other road users significantly optimise safety when driving at night."
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