In the last years we do recognize an increasing number of driver assistance systems, which aims to help the driver to drive safely through the corresponding traffic conditions. In parallel, automotive lighting uses a part of these new information systems to direct the light towards the appropriate directions and make night time driving safer. The newly developed glare free high beam system is one example to use the information of oncoming vehicles and proceeding vehicles and other road users to avoid glaring and to enlarge the visibility for the driver at the same time. The target is the creation of an optimized visibility, which will be delivered automatically. The paper reports on the findings of a test procedure, where the subjects had to rate the new lighting system and also the degree of comfort, which is delivered with such automatic visibility controlled light distributions. Also the comparison between the automatic control and the manual operation (switching between low beam and high beam) was tested.
The result shows a clear indication, that the gain in having a visibility at night, which is comparable to high beam, but with other road users present increases significantly the comfort feeling of the drivers. With an enhanced visibility the drivers do see more and are able to detect obstacles much earlier. The glaring of oncoming vehicles is avoided by the camera based lighting system so that the road users do not feel disturbed.