Explaining headlight assistance technology (part 2)
Today we’ll be continuing our series in which we’re explaining headlight assistance technology and start talking about how much headlights have advanced since the traditional fixed ones.
Cornering lights
As opposed to adaptive headlights, the cornering lights are meant to provide a bit of extra light to help with sharp turn or when parking. They will usually switch on only at low speeds and when the indicators are on, when in reverse or in case the steering wheel is being turned furiously.
In older cars, they employed a small side light, but in modern ones they have a swivelling lens in the fog light or main headlight housing.
Self-levelling lights
When it comes to HID – which are several times brighter than conventional halogen lights – these are required by law – at least in Europe and Australia – to be fitted with a self-levelling system which is meant to keep the headlights pointing down at the road.
Usually a self-levelling system will determine the car’s inclination by monitoring the front and rear suspension and then electric actuators will be quickly adjust the projector’s beam up or down.
Automatic or dusk-sensing headlights
Dusk-sensing headlights are great to take that little bit of responsibility off the driver’s shoulders and measure the ambient light to know when to turn on the headlights.
When the surrounding environment has been a little too dark for a certain amount of time, that’s when the sensor will instruct the headlights – as well as the instrument and dashboard lights – to turn on.
Automatic high beam
High beams can illuminate much further than low beams can but they can also blind incoming traffic. Automatic high beams will operate via a camera-style sensor mounted on the front-facing section of the interior mirror. This sensor is capable of detecting street lights, tail-lights and headlight of on-coming cars, and as such knows when not to fire up the high-beams so that they do not blind incoming drivers.
