With the so-called "Digital Light", Mercedes-Benz is introducing a new generation of car lights. The “HD light” of the future should bring more safety and support the driver even in the most critical situations. In the article, we clarify what the difference between the latest headlamp projectors and conventional headlamps is.
Digital Light provides more safety for after-rides
The new Mercedes headlights in HD quality have a whopping a million micro mirrors. These countless micromirrors divide the light into tiny pixels, which explains the term “HD light”. The advantage: the more light pixels there are, the better the headlights can react to different lighting situations. With intelligent control, for example, certain objects such as passers-by or street signs can be illuminated, while other areas in front of the vehicle can be specifically hidden. Of course, this requires extremely powerful vehicle sensors and computers that not only activate and deactivate the individual light pixels, but also recognize detailed information about the environment in real time and use them to calculate the desired brightness value of the individual light pixels. Another advantage: Thanks to the environment analysis and the masking out of different areas, the variable HD high beam on the country road never has to be dimmed again. Overall, the new light not only brings safety for the driver, but also more safety for other road users. Thanks to area suppression, the new HD headlights are not able to blind other road users.
Not the headlight, but the intelligence is crucial
The Mercedes component, which is not only referred to as an HD headlight, but also as a "pixel headlight", was developed by a German research association made up of numerous well-known companies and companies. Well-known members from industry and research - namely Osram, Daimler, Fraunhofer, Hella and Infineon - developed the HD headlights together and in numerous individual projects. The development of the demonstration model took more than three and a half years of project time. In contrast to conventional Mercedes headlights, the control electronics - hence the component that is responsible for switching the individual LEDs on and off - are now integrated directly into the chip. Each individual light point of the innovative Mercedes headlights can be controlled individually and according to the driving conditions. Four LED chips are installed for each headlight, each with 1.024 individually controllable light points. All in all, a vehicle has 8.192 individually controllable light pixels.
HD headlights should also be able to beam light signals onto the street
In addition, Mercedes-Benz sees other possibilities in digital light. Thanks to the precise and high-resolution light radiation, it would be possible, for example, to project light traces onto the road in narrow motorway construction sites and thus replace missing lane markings. In addition, traffic symbols and warnings could be projected onto the street - for example as an alternative direction indicator or as a warning symbol when parking and exiting. It is not yet known when the headlights will be ready for series production. However, the first headlamp prototypes were already installed in demonstration vehicles in November 2016 and successfully tested and presented during night drives. So it won't be long before Mercedes-Benz brings the HD headlights into series production - for example with the next generation of the Mercedes-Benz E-Class or S-class.
