NEW: Smart car headlights that dip on their own
SCIENTISTS have developed a “smart” car headlight which does not have to be dipped to avoid dazzling oncoming traffic.
New headlights will detect approaching vehicles and dim its full beam to stop it shining in eyes
Instead the headlights detect the approaching vehicles and dim a portion of the full beam to stop it shining in the other driver’s eyes.
The new technology in the US will also make it safer to drive through heavy rain or snow, particularly at night.
When our system detects an oncoming car, it can turn off the beam that would hit the eye of the driver of the oncoming car.
Usually motorists have to drive with dimmed beams in heavy rain or snow so they can see, but the new headlights allow them to use high beam to illuminate the road ahead.
Professor Takeo Kanade, of Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, who helped develop the technology, said: “When it is raining at night, it can be difficult to see because your headlights reflect off the rain drops. But rain drops do not fall very fast so we can track them with a camera and turn off the corresponding ray of light.”
The headlight does not have to be dipped to avoid dazzling oncoming traffic
Professor Kanade said his team’s headlight is also able to avoid dazzling other drivers.
The new technology in the US will also make it safer to drive through heavy rain or snow
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He said: “When our system detects an oncoming car, it can turn off the beam that would hit the eye of the driver of the oncoming car. That means they won’t see your headlights as high-beam at all."