Gadgetory

you can't avoid crashing into what you can't see traditional headlights show you what's in your path now adaptive headlights show you what's in your path next the concept goes back all the way to the Tucker it had a third eye headlight that mechanically followed the steering rack rather crudely today two major technologies get this done better some cars have special lights that aim off into the corners and only turn on as you turn the wheel to navigate a corner more common are cars that have motorized headlamp assemblies than actually swivel left or right based on your steering angle and your vehicle speed one of the newer technologies though has been shown by Audi these are called LED matrix headlights outies developed these if you look inside there you're going to see five led assemblies there they are there and each of those is made up of five LED emitters so 25 pieces here 25 more on the other side they tell me that you can do a billion combinations of light based on direction based on the shape of the thing and even based on where it's pointing and they do the pointing not by moving things on swivels like most cars do but by actually changing what light elements are on and the intensity of each one this is interesting because they can use GPS instead of the steering column to pre-aim the lights where you're going it knows where the curve is coming before you steer into it so the light is there even before you are where as current cars wait for your steering input in theory putting the lights reaction a little bit behind where you need to be looking this text not for sale in the US yet not because it isn't ready but because the Department of Transportation and other regulators just haven't caught up with it yet and don't quite know how to classify it other countries do have it for sale now this is laser light coming in the future this is really cutting-edge stuff but Audi's done here is envision the laser high beams specific lighting system with incredible range we're talking 500 meters that's 1,500 feet trust me your current high beams don't see out that far and of course with incredible intensity and purity of light that laser is known for and the similar low energy consumption that LED is known for what's happening inside here is actually a bit of a misnomer you may think this is like some Pink Floyd concert where they're shooting lasers all over the road not the case this is the module it's in the guts of this thing the actual laser is behind this piece of circuit board and it's only going as far as this barrel it's pointing this way to that piece of phosphor there which gets excited by the laser light and then it emits the light then through a lens and then with it's incredible brightness so if you think about this as being lasers fired all over the road that's not how it works but it harnesses laser technology nonetheless as you can see a benefit of this design is its extreme compactness freeing up more of the car's front acreage for designers to do things other than just fitting in big lamp assemblies the IIHS rates adaptive lighting among the best of the new crop of driver-assistance tech recent surveys show that models of cars equipped with current adaptive headlights have as much as a 10% reduction in collision claims and the IIHS estimates that full adoption of this technology one day could eliminate as many as a hundred and forty thousand accidents a year some 2,500 of those fatal when you're in the market for a new car new or late-model used to pay is to double check if it's got adaptive headlight tech