Mercedes-Benz has always been offering some great headlights for its
cars, not just in terms of design but also in terms of luminosity. Now, instead
of the 24 LEDs of the gridded high beam module in the CLS headlamp, around 84
LEDs per headlamp will soon be providing for even better light quality and even
greater safety at night. As many as 1024 pixels per LED will enable
optimum illumination of the road at every speed and in all traffic conditions.
And not to worry, this would not dazzle the oncoming traffic. All this will be done without dazzling other
road users.
One can recall that around 500 LEDs attended
to all the lighting functions on a car for the first time on the S-Class in
2013. In 2014 the Multibeam LED headlamps on the new CLS-Class raised the
benchmark once again with their precision LED light grid modules. It’s very
much proven that precision lights have prevented accidents at night. Five times
as many pedestrians are killed on country roads as during the daytime. Although
night-time driving on country roads accounts for only 20 percent of total
mileage, 40 percent of all fatal accidents occur in Germany during the night,
according to BASt, the German Federal Office for Roads and Traffic.
"Enabling ideal visibility in all
driving situations without dazzling other road users has always been our credo
in developing new light systems," said Uwe Kostanzer, head of light
systems development at Mercedes-Benz. "We are pursuing the further
development of LED technology to this end," Kostanzer added.
Multibeam LED technology is now gaining
popularity as compared to static high beam systems. This technology also
supports the driver when there are other vehicles in the field illuminated by
the headlamps. By means of totally independent control of the individual LEDs
of the gridded light source, the Multibeam LED headlamp is able to mask other
road users out of its light distribution in a fraction of a second, thereby
enabling high beam to remain on. This assures the driver of the best possible
light performance at all times, without dazzling other road users.
According to a press release, in the near
future, Mercedes-Benz will be incorporating an additional High Range LED high
beam into its LED headlamps. This additional high beam employs state-of-the-art
high-performance LEDs to provide high beam ranges of over 600 m in driving
situations without any oncoming traffic or vehicles ahead. In contrast to the
current "laser headlamps", LED technology achieves this performance
at markedly lower costs and with a manageable degree of complexity. At the same
time, it also enables Mercedes-Benz to exploit the legally permissible level of
illumination in Europe virtually to the full. This applies irrespective of the
light source employed in the headlamp for all manufacturers.
In 2014 Mercedes-Benz introduced the
innovative Multibeam LED
headlamps in the CLS-Class . These are fitted
with 24 individual
high-performance LEDs. Each one of these LEDs can be individually electronically controlled.
"Gridding" the light in this way allows the light distribution from
the right and left headlamps to be controlled entirely separately and adapted
to the traffic conditions with a high level of dynamism. This enables the
individual areas of the road surface to be illuminated in a very specific
manner. The headlamp control technology combines the gridded light source with
the proven mechanical technology of the LED Intelligent Light System, and the
high-performance LEDs provide for a range of 485 m.
It was way back in 1991 that Mercedes-Benz
premiered the xenon headlamps with gas discharge lamps in the Mercedes F 100
research vehicle. This was followed in 1995 with xenon headlamps with dynamic
headlamp range control in the E-Class. The year 1999 saw the premier of bi-xenon
technology in the CL-Class and four years later in 20013 the company had a
world premiere of the active light function in the E-Class. In 2004 came the
world premiere of the bi-xenon headlamps with active light function and
cornering light function in the CLS-Class and a year later the premiere of Active
Night View Assist in the S-Class. Intelligence set in 2006 with world premiere
of the Intelligent Light System in the E-Class. In 2009 it was the world
premiere of the Intelligent Light System with Adaptive Highbeam Assist in the
E-Class and in the same year it was the premiere of Active Night View Assist
Plus in the S- and E-Class. One year later it was the world premiere LED High
Performance headlamps incorporating all the light functions of the Intelligent
Light System in the CLS-Class and a year later in 2010 it was new xenon burner with
20 percent higher colour temperature, and thus even closer to daylight, in the
S- and E-Class. In 2011 Mercedes-Benz started series production of the
spotlight function (world premiere) and in 2013 the new E-Class came fitted as
standard with energy-efficient LED low-beam headlamps (34 watts/vehicle). In
2013 the new S-Class becomes first car to be fitted exclusively with LED
headlamps as standard. In 2014 was born the Multibeam LED headlamps in the new CLS-Class.