Smart car headlights on full beam in traffic do not dazzle

A new type of smart headlight will allow motorists to stay on high beam without blinding oncoming drivers.

To be safe, the headlight will also need to identify smaller road users such as pedestrians and cyclists

Car headlights have been improving for 130 years; an acetylene lantern with a naked flame and a simple reflecting mirror has evolved into powerful xenon projector headlamps, but more than half of vehicle crashes and deaths continue to occur at night even though there is less traffic.

A team at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute has developed a programmable headlight that tracks oncoming drivers, blacking out only the small portions of the beam that would otherwise dazzle them. The device manages this by splitting the light into one million beams, which it can switch on and off individually. It is so precise in this targetting of light that at low speeds in snow or rain, it can track individual flakes or rain drops and prevent light shining on them – dramatically reducing reflected glare in the process.

The system can also be used to highlight a traffic lane. When linked to a GPS navigation system, the programmable headlights can project arrows or warnings on to the road surface ahead to guide or warn the driver.

Find out more at the Carnegie Mellon University website