Information Highways (13 of 20)

Developed by parts supplier Visteon, the active lighting system uses a bundle of lights designed to illuminate different areas of the road ahead.
There are no less than five different lenses in each headlamp.
By plotting the area of light thrown by each lens, the engineers have been able to create a beam that changes shape as you drive.
The shape of the beam is controlled by the car's speed and steering.
Accelerate and the computer will switch on certain lamps to illuminate your view as far ahead as possible.
Slow down and the system switches to a broader view of the immediate surroundings.
Out of town, the system is even more impressive.
llluminating the left or right hand side of the road depending on which way you turn the wheel.

Add GPS and mapping technology and the system might one day be able to read the road and adjust the beam before you turn the wheel.
It 's the next best thing to seeing in the dark.
We are at our most vulnerable at night.
More than half of all accidents happen after dark, but less than a quarter of all journeys.
A system under development at Jaguar could change all that.
When we looked at nighttime driving, we found that generally people were more satisfied with main beam headlights, but, of course, we all know that it isn't possible to drive with main beam headlights all of the time.
We would be forever turning them on and turning them off.
So we look for technologies that would give the effect of main beam visibility, but, of course, without causing the glare and inconvenience to other road users.
And that was the benchmark we set ourselves when we were looking for a solution to night vision.