Not long ago one of my friends, recently home from vacation in Japan, said, “Hector, Europe is far behind the Japanese vehicle lighting industry. I saw headlamps which always provide high beams, but without any glare to opposite cars. It was wonderful!”.
This comment illustrates an unfortunate situation we have in Europe with complete unawareness of the benefits of ADB. We created a wonderful function which greatly improves lighting at night, providing permanent High Beam comfort and safety, but car makers only exceptionally communicate on it, like JLR at the 2017 IAA in Frankfurt. So only very few drivers and car buyers know about it.
It’s true that there are many innovations competing for limited bandwidth of marketing communication, and automakers prefer to communicate on AV and EV developments rather than lighting—but surely, I am convinced, there is room to communicate in lighting as well!
Koito presented professional images about ADB at the Tokyo Motor Show.
without ADB | with ADB |
Pictures like this, I think are an effective way to show drivers and buyers quickly and clearly why they should have ADB in their next car. Koito’s pictures are amongst the 20 you’ll find in this week’s in-depth article. Really I think we must find creative and effective new ways to get the message out, to car buyers but also to car company decision makers and regulators; all new vehicles should have ADB.
Also this week, we take a look at what the clock change back to winter time does to pedestrian safety (it’s not good) and present ideas for how to use that as a lever to increase knowledge and demand for better lighting, including the ADB.
Sincerely yours
DVN President