Modern vehicles are fitted with far more technology than ten years ago. This is the natural progression of the automotive sector, and features commonplace on today's cars would only have been a dream a few decades ago. Manufacturers are constantly working at making vehicles faster, more fuel efficient, more comfortable, safer, and more convenient. Adaptive headlights are one of the more recent developments that have hit the mainstream. But what do they do?
Related: What are dipped headlights and when should you use them?
While not entirely new and seen as far back as the 60s in the Citroen DS, adaptive headlights are a relatively new inclusion in many premium vehicles. Advances in LED technology has made it possible to alter the pattern of the light emitted by your vehicle's headlights, improving nighttime visibility and creating a safer driving environment.
What do adaptive headlights do?
Adaptive headlights, as the name suggests, adapt to the surroundings as you drive. The most common form of adaptive headlights are the sort that direct their beams around a corner as you drive. It measures how much you are turning the steering wheel and then adjusts the beams to point in the same direction as you are turning. This helps illuminate more of the road around the corner and gives you better visibility when driving at night.
This is an automated process and requires no change from your side. You'll still be able to drive as you would at night, you will just be able to see a little more when turning. What is lane-keeping assist?
Some manufacturers will also fit a self-levelling feature to their lights so that the lights are able to automatically adjust when you're driving up or down a hill. These lights will be able to change where they're pointing to once again help you see that little bit further down the road.
Auto High-Beam/Dip
Sometimes you may stumble apon the term adaptive headlights being used to describe an Automatic High-Beam, Automatic Dipped Beams, or High-Beam Assist. These work a little differently and rely heavily on the capabilities of LED lights. Instead of moving side-to-side, these are able to divert the high beam light away from vehicles in front of you or oncoming traffic, while managing to keep the surrounding areas illuminated.
Auto high beam can usually be activated in the same way that you would activate the normal high beam, but you will see an (A) symbol shown as part of the dashboard display. How to drive safely in the rain at night
More advanced lighting systems will able able to adjust the brightness of your lights depending on how bright or dark the section of road is that you're driving on. Brighter areas, such as city and town, requires less light while the outskirts of the city and rural areas require more illumination.
