Lighting up the night.

[revian]

?.....bend light around these vehicles[/b].

Really? Unless the "beam modifiers" turn the oncoming vehicles into massive gravity wells...

And making them invisible?

The 'black hole' BMW?

Ian

[jont]

wow that sounds impressive - I suspect it is one of those technologies which (assuming it is engineered well) looks hugely complex when explained, but simply becomes intuitive magic in operation - what is on the s-class today, will be common-place in a few years

Alasdair

And will then effectively write the vehicle off when it goes wrong

FFS, we have enough cars with knackered headlight bulbs driving around as it is. Should we really be overcomplicating and over-engineering something so fundamental to safety? I'd much rather see all these things mandated as user-maintainable, with cheap off-the-shelf parts, fixable with tools provided in the car.

[fungus]

wow that sounds impressive - I suspect it is one of those technologies which (assuming it is engineered well) looks hugely complex when explained, but simply becomes intuitive magic in operation - what is on the s-class today, will be common-place in a few years

Alasdair

And will then effectively write the vehicle off when it goes wrong

FFS, we have enough cars with knackered headlight bulbs driving around as it is. Should we really be overcomplicating and over-engineering something so fundamental to safety? I'd much rather see all these things mandated as user-maintainable, with cheap off-the-shelf parts, fixable with tools provided in the car.

+1

[akirk]

wow that sounds impressive - I suspect it is one of those technologies which (assuming it is engineered well) looks hugely complex when explained, but simply becomes intuitive magic in operation - what is on the s-class today, will be common-place in a few years

Alasdair

And will then effectively write the vehicle off when it goes wrong

FFS, we have enough cars with knackered headlight bulbs driving around as it is. Should we really be overcomplicating and over-engineering something so fundamental to safety? I'd much rather see all these things mandated as user-maintainable, with cheap off-the-shelf parts, fixable with tools provided in the car.

Agree - but the inner geek loves anything like this despite the fact that my scottish / yorkshire heritage means I would never pay for it on a car...

Alasdair

[TheInsanity1234]

I honestly wish I had the cash to buy all these expensive cars, these gadgets sound like wet dreams!

I'm a lover of gadgetry, and all this headlight stuff sounds fabulous!

I wonder if the headlights have got programming installed that detects if a motor/sensor isn't working, then reverts the main beam to traditional style, as in, you've got to do the dipping, instead of waving your lights over the place in a well organised manner, or will it be a case of you get in and a huge message pops up saying "LIGHTS NOT OPERATIVE, RETURN TO DEALER FOR EXPENSIVE FIX!"?

[TripleS]

wow that sounds impressive - I suspect it is one of those technologies which (assuming it is engineered well) looks hugely complex when explained, but simply becomes intuitive magic in operation - what is on the s-class today, will be common-place in a few years

Alasdair

And will then effectively write the vehicle off when it goes wrong

FFS, we have enough cars with knackered headlight bulbs driving around as it is. Should we really be overcomplicating and over-engineering something so fundamental to safety? I'd much rather see all these things mandated as user-maintainable, with cheap off-the-shelf parts, fixable with tools provided in the car.

....requiring no more than, say, 15 minutes work, too.

Is it still the case that on the continent the law requires you to have a full set of spare bulbs in the car, so that you can replace a failed bulb at the roadside? Isn't that getting a bit unrealistic when some cars apparently require a considerable amount of dismantling in order to perform the task?

[5star]

I wonder if the headlights have got programming installed that detects if a motor/sensor isn't working, then reverts the main beam to traditional style, as in, you've got to do the dipping, instead of waving your lights over the place in a well organised manner, or will it be a case of you get in and a huge message pops up saying "LIGHTS NOT OPERATIVE, RETURN TO DEALER FOR EXPENSIVE FIX!"?

Yes, it does. I got some bird poop on the sensor. It reverted to traditional fixed pattern dip and manual high beam. I had to clean the poop then cycle the ignition for it to work again.

I also think the lights are on a feedback mechanism, to cope with body roll and adjust accordingly.

[5star]

Should we really be overcomplicating and over-engineering something so fundamental to safety?

I would say this has got to be one of the best safety inventions of recent times. Until you try driving with these quality headlights, you don't realise how bad normal headlights are.