Vehicle Forward Lighting: A New Look at Intelligent Adaptive Headlamps, Safety and Performance

Recent growth in the availability of solid state lighting, camera and sensor technologies, in developments in optical design, and in better understanding of visual functioning have all converged with the emergence of adaptive lighting systems that, for the first time, go beyond simple mechanical swiveling in response to steering wheel position. Adaptive control of a matrix of solid state light sources equipped with precision optical control leads to the possibility of dynamically changing beam patterns beyond conventional low and high beams. Light distribution adjustments in response to ambient light conditions, weather, traffic and pedestrian activity levels, road geometry, and incident status (such as accidents, construction or congestion ahead) can provide the driver with not only illumination but visual information about the roadway environment. The present paper summarizes these developments in a framework that ultimately, will allow vehicle lighting manufacturers and importantly, regulators, to begin to assess these developments not only in terms of their relative costs and benefits, but also in terms of how vehicle lighting systems can be benchmarked for compliance to standardized performance specifications.