Opel Developing Next Generation LED Matrix Lighting System
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100 years ago, road traffic safety changed forever when automotive components company Bosch introduced the first electric headlights. Today, GM and Opel are at the forefront of the ever increasing improvement to headlight technology and road traffic safety.
Opel’s Adaptive Forward Lighting (AFL+) systems, available in a wide range of Opel vehicles, features up to ten headlight functions for a varying range of driving conditions. The variable Xenon headlamp beam automatically adapts to the driving situation, adjusting the distribution of the light beam depending on road and weather conditions with varying brightness for city driving, pedestrians, highways and country roads. The direction and intensity of the beam also self-adjusts depending on the steering angle and speed of the vehicle. And things continue to push forward.
Opel’s next generation headlight system, called LED matrix, provides glare-free high beam lighting that is constantly self-adjusting for varying driving situations. When lights from oncoming traffic are detected, individual LED’s are deactivated while the road remains constantly illuminated, preventing glare in the other drivers eyes.
Opel says it has been “intensively testing” the new headlight technology in prototypes. A study done by the Technical University of Darmstadt found that the LED matrix system allows drivers to spot objects on the side of the road 1.3 seconds faster at 80 km/h than what would be possible with xenon lighting.
“This is a good 30 meter difference,” says Ingolf Schneider, Supervisor of Lighting Technology at Opel, “That almost equals the braking distance required to come to a standstill from 100 km/h.” Opel says the LED matrix technology will be gradually rolled out across its model lineup over the next few years.
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It’s a shame that led matrix systems are illegal in the US
Is it? Why? Who orders this?
“In 1968 — two years before the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration was founded — the U.S. instituted a regulation that required all vehicle headlights to be capable of switching from high-beam to low-beam. That rule is still on the books.
But the systems from Audi and Volvo don’t involve a switch, per se. They’re smarter than that, adapting to conditions without requiring input from drivers. That’s something that regulators clearly didn’t envision in the late 1960s.
NHTSA says that it’s open to new technologies, but the agency isn’t sold on this one. Most importantly, NHTSA isn’t fully convinced that LEDs make roads any safer. In fact, some tests have shown that cars with LED brake lights get rear-ended more often than those with incandescent lights.”
Source: http://www.thecarconnection.com/news/1083015_audis-smart-led-headlights-banned-in-the-u-s-okay-everywhere-else
Hm. At least “NHTSA says that it’s open to new technologies”.
LED uses less energy. And when the “Matrix LED” does at least not makes things worse, NNTSA might accept it at the end.
BTW, thanks for the reply and the link.
Well, my 1995 Buick Regal came with factory installed incandescent lights. I replaced all the internal and external bulbs with LED bulbs and it is clearly more visible at night. And the main headlamps are now 35 watt HID lamps. So I could leave all my lights on for many hours and the battery will still have capacity to start the engine.
It passed annual inspection many times, and local laws have no restriction on the use of non-incandescent lamps. As of now, it is probably the ONLY 1995 Regal with no incandescent lamps.