Mercedes has made strong and fast progress in lighting. In 1993, they began to step forward out of the H4 era with complex-reflector headlamps on the C-Class. In 1995 they first offered HID headlamps, and in 2006, the Intelligent Light System using AFS functions.
But surely it is from 2010 and the launch of the CLS with, for the first time, LED headlamps giving a better-than-HID lighting performance, that Mercedes became one of the greatest innovative car makers in lighting.
In just six or seven years since then, Mercedes lighting innovation has accelerated sharply: Active Multibeam LED headlamps with hybrid ADB on the CLS Coupé in 2014, and two years later the 2016 E-Class with an 84-LED module. Each time, Mercedes’ innovative headlight systems have rushed to the fore with best-in-class lighting. Until just lately, I had to call the E-Class the best headlamp system in the world, even accounting for other extremely high-performing systems such as the ones on the Audi A5, BMW 7, and the new Opel Insignia.
But now with the digital light, we are in an entirely new lighting world.
Hardware, with its long and costly iterative tooling development, is being replaced by software. Modification is done by changing lines of code rather than making new tools. Mechanical and mechatronic beam-shifting are replaced by digital beam-building. The perfect light results: exactly what, where, and when the driver needs it, without changing from low to high beam. And a whole host of new functions to help communication and to assist the driver in difficult situations, preparing for the arrival of autonomous cars.
After the great progress of Audi with the A8 equipped with the first matrix ADB system, after the i8 equipped with laser high-beam booster, after more and more generalist car makers using LEDs and matrix, we’re now seeing super-revolutionary lighting systems completely decoupled from what came before. It’s marvelous! Congratulations to all the passionate lighting specialists who work so dilligently to achieve these innovations. It’s a grand time to be in lighting…and to drive at night!
Sincerely yours
DVN President