Volkswagen demos next-gen lighting technology
New projection systems could improve safety for other road users – or help your car chat with you if it's lonely.
With LED head- and tail-lights now being offered across all price ranges, Volkswagen has revealed some potential future lighting designs making full use of the technology.
Up front, the company has demonstrated new matrix (or HD-LCD) headlights with around 30,000 points of controllable light, more than offered on current commercially-available systems.
Not only can these new headlights dim selected parts of the beam to avoid dazzling other road users, they can project images onto the road, such as the car's intended path, potentially reducing accidents.
These headlights can also project lane markings onto the road to help drivers more accurately gauge the width of their car – or any attached trailers – on unmarked roads or through road works. For those who like to blast up remote mountain roads at midnight, this system is capable of projecting curved markings.
The company has also demonstrated a similar system for tail-lights, dubbed Optical Park Assist, showing the car’s intended direction while in reverse gear.
Although many reversing cameras already do a similar thing on-screen, this setup has the added benefit of informing pedestrians and other vehicles about the car's intended movement.
These tail-lights can also be made to display warning signals for upcoming traffic events or, when stationary, show the car's charging status.
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