Night Sight: Variable headlights for enhanced safety

Everything looks gray at night, including the road, which is why Mercedes-Benz engineers are continuously working to further improve vehicles’ on-board lighting systems. Thanks to their efforts, night driving will become even safer in the future in the new E-Class. The vehicle is equipped with the Intelligent Light System, which was introduced in 2006 and ensures that drivers can
more easily see objects in the dark at greater distances. The E-Class will also feature the Adaptive High Beam Assistant, a system that made its global debut this year and automatically adjusts the range of the headlights for optimum visibility. The trio of safety features will be rounded out by the new Night View Assist system, which illuminates the road with a dazzle-free infrared light and pro-actively notifies the driver of any pedestrians it detects in the dark.

Darkness increases the level of risk. This is why almost 40 percent of all fatal traffic accidents in Germany occur at night, although only 20 percent of driving takes place during these hours. Safety could be improved by enhancing headlights to ensure they provide better illumination. At least that’s the conclusion of a study conducted by the technical inspectorate TÜV, which shows that approximately 23,000 traffic accidents involving around 1,200 fatalities could be avoided every year in Germany if all passenger vehicles were equipped with bixenon headlights. For their part, accident researchers at Germany’s Federal Highway Research Institute are calling for mandatory installation of variable headlights that would better illuminate roads.

Variable range: Mercedes-Benz has introduced such a system onto the market in the new E-Class. Known as the Adaptive High Beam Assistant, it consists of two smart bixenon headlights that continuously adjust the car’s low beams so that their range varies between 65 and 300 meters, depending on traffic conditions.

The system ensures maximum possible illumination of the road without blinding other road users. If no preceding or oncoming vehicles are detected, the system switches smoothly to high beam.

Available as optional equipment, the Adaptive High Beam Assistant consists of two components: a miniature camera with a builtin control device and the adjustable 35 watt headlights of the Intelligent Light System (ILS), which was first introduced in 2006. Located in front of the rear-view mirror, the camera and its built-in control device are housed in a casing the size of a pack of cigarettes. “The unit registers the different sources of light in front of the vehicle and uses various algorithms to measure the distance with great precision,” explains Bernd Woltermann, who is responsible for the Adaptive High Beam Assistant at Mercedes- Benz Development.