The long term goal of the project is to develop the next generation headlights for vehicles, that are programmable, multi-task, react to the road environment and enhance driver safety. Smart headlights will better illuminate the road, spotlight obstacles, signs and lanes, project directions on the road, reduce glare and increase visibility in dangerous rain and snowstorms. The U.S. National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that annually 400,000 crashes and 4,000 fatalities happen during rain and snowstorms at night. The additional cost of the headlight will be small (a few hundred dollars per vehicle) compared to the direct and indirect savings due to reduced crashes. The project has strong commercialization potential, with vehicle exterior lighting becoming more and more adaptive recently. For 2013, the goal will be to design and build a prototype headlight with 500 Hz reaction capability and algorithms that can detect and highlight obstacles as well as reduce glare for oncoming drivers. This prototype will be tested in laboratory conditions and outdoors.
Toward Smart Automotive Headlights for Safe Driving
2013
13 pages
Report
No indication
English
Transportation Safety , Road Transportation , Transportation & Traffic Planning , Transportation , Snow, Ice, & Permafrost , Highway safety , Weather conditions , Highways , Glare , Headlamps , Luminance , Prototypes , Vehicle design , Design , Safety and human factors , Vehicles and equipment , U.S. National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA)
Engineering Index Backfile | 1904
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