How often do we use our high beams? Many of us barely use them, in fact whenever I turn on my high beams in areas where there is no oncoming traffic and no cars in front of me, I’ve gotten remarks from passengers that using the high beam is unethical. This seems to be the opinion of quite a few motorists, which surprises me.
Apparently according to auto parts supplier Gentex Corporation, automakers and other parties in the auto industry are actually trying to encourage higher use of a car’s high beams. Studies have shown that the very low usage of a car’s high beams are due to a various reasons including forgetfulness, complacency and the fear of not being able to react to oncoming traffic and turning them off fast enough, resulting in other motorists getting dazzled or annoyed.
Gentex says even at speeds of up to 56km/h, a car’s low beams will not allow you to see far enough head to detect and react to a potential hazard. This is the whole point of high beams but in situations where high beams should by right be used, studies have found that high beams were only used less than 25% of the time.
Gentex’s solution to this is their SmartBeam system, which BMW has put in its cars and called High-Beam Assist. The High-Beam Assist system uses a tiny camera-on-a-chip combined with computer algorithms to automatically determine when to turn on and off the vehicle’s high beams depending on traffic conditions.
The camera is located on the interior’s rear view mirror and faces forward. When the system detects that it is dark and no other vehicles are present, the high beams are automatically turned on. When traffic in front is detected, they are automatically turned off. A manual override for the driver is also provided.
The BMW High-Beam Assist system is available in the BMW 5, 6, 7, and X6 models. It is also available in Malaysia on various models including the BMW 523i SE.
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Great ideal…
Malaysian use it when there are slower cars infront of them…other than that they hardly used it…
or if ever they use it…they hardly bothered to turn it off when there is oncoming traffic…this is actually what u call rude…
turn on high beam is a must (if no car in front of you)especially at hill road/zigzag road condition, not only you can see the road condition in front clearly , the driver at opposite direction also can see if there is a sharp bend in front or deep slope .
but you must get ready to shift to low beam when you can see the car head light from opposite direction.
How do the lighting system reduce glare? Glare is the thing that annoys object ahead when it is used.
I think its better if BMW work with the tech company to invent a special coating that behaves something like a night vision device, i.e., one that amplify the smallest source of light in order to see in the dark.
That way, you will solve two problems: driver now can detect objects in pitch black and no one will suffer from glare from high beams.
Whaddaya think?
There is a night vision assist on high end automobiles like the Mercedes S-class. However, I heard the night vision assist view is worse than actually using your own eyes.
What I think should be used would be some infared heat camera since all living things have a higher temperature compared to the surroundings.
What if in front of you is a non-living concrete wall or a lamp post? Then how to see la?
bmw 7 series already has night vision. its job is to look ahead past the actual range of the headlights, and yes, it can detect other objects as well.
its not a perfect solution. but used in conjunction with all the other driver aids, etc. it should help a little.
thats BMW…
brilliant technology