Audi says its Audi Matrix LED headlights will make their debut on the new A8, which is scheduled for market launch at the end of 2013.
Audi Matrix LED technology splits up the LED high-beam headlights into individual, small diodes working in conjunction with lenses or reflectors connected in series. Managed by a responsive control unit, they are “activated and deactivated or dimmed individually according to the situation”. Audi says this means “they always supply high-precision illumination and achieve the maximum possible light yield without needing a pivoting mechanism”.
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In the new Audi A8, each headlight comprises 25 high-beam light-emitting diodes, arranged in groups of five per reflector. When the light switch is set to “automatic” and the high-beam headlights are on, the system is activated from 30 km/h (18.64 mph) on highways and from 60 km/h (37.28 mph) on city streets. The Audi Matrix LED headlights produce a quality of light “with a special crystalline sheen” the company claims.
Audi says the system operates with such precision that it blanks out light that would shine directly onto oncoming and preceding vehicles, but continues to cast the high beams with full power on all other zones between and beside them. The closer an approaching vehicle gets, the more LEDs are deactivated or dimmed. When there is no more oncoming traffic, the high-beam headlights then resume full power, including the sections that had previously been off. The light that the driver sees is always bright, homogeneous and much more effective than that produced by competitors’ mechanical dipping systems, Audi says.
US regulatory issue
Reports suggest, however, that – under current rules – Audi’s new headlight system will not make it to the US because the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) requires automakers to have both a high- and low-beam setting on the headlights. The Matrix system does both automatically and Audi does not include such a switch. Representations are being made to the NHTSA for a change to the rules.
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By GlobalData
