Amongst the huge number of innovations in modern vehicle-based road illumination technology, there are three major ones that stand out along the evolutionary path:
- LEDs for headlamp service in 2007
- matrix beam with vertical segments on one line in 2013,
- And now, multi-row “digital” light in 2016 to custom-tailor the beam pattern precisely to match the road, traffic, and ambient conditions dynamically—without the use of mechanical actuators.
The new Mercedes E-Class headlamp marks the first commercialisation of this third breakthrough. Its new module has 84 LED chips in three rows to produce whatever beam is called for: low, high, high-resolution ADB. Other headlamps with this technology are in the development pipeline, but this is the first.
Concept & components
This diagram shows the additive superposition of the headlamp module’s output modes to achieve the flexible beam output: