Ford’s latest lighting technology is the right stuff to get drivers home safe, even on the darkest of roads as the winter nights set in.
Introduced for the first time on the new Ford Focus, this new kit can read road markings and signs. This allows the adaptive front lighting system to react by directing headlights around corners, widening the light pattern or turning the high beam on and off.
Technology such as this is particularly useful when approaching a roundabout, as the beam will widen and allow drivers to see if pedestrians and cyclists are approaching clearer.
“The dream is that night driving need be no more difficult than driving in the day. Our latest lighting technologies are part of our plan to make that a reality,” said Michael Koherr, lighting research engineer for Ford of Europe.
“Across Europe 15 per cent of road layouts change every year. Amazingly useful as GPS is, using signs to read the road offers the most up-to-date information you can get.”
The front facing camera on the Ford Focus is also capable of reading the road to keep the vehicle centred in the lane, maintain a comfortable driving distance from vehicles ahead and warn drivers against driving the wrong way onto a motorway.
Mounted on the inside of the windscreen, below the rear-view mirror, the camera can monitor road signs and markings up to 65 metres ahead, enabling the system’s dynamic bending function to come into play much sooner than if only reliant on steering inputs.
Watch the video below to see it in action.
