BMW 2001 Annual Report Download - page 136

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18
Headlights looking round a bend and pixel light technology. Why must the headlights of a car always shine
straight ahead? And why must they always have the same light intensity? These are questions carefully
and intensively examined by the BMW Groups development engineers. As a result, three innovative light
systems will soon improve the active safety  to the benefit of the driver and his partners on the road.
Brake Force Control, for example, shows how hard the driver is applying the brakes as a function of the
cars actual deceleration. Future generations of BMW cars will have several brake light segments coming on
as a function of deceleration forces and thus providing a clear signal distinguishing between a slight touch of
the brake pedal and all-out application of the brakes in, say, an emergency. This will clearly reduce the risk of
bumper-to-bumper accidents.
Adaptive Light Control (ALC) controls the headlights by satellite, combining information from the Global
Positioning System (GPS) with the digitalised road maps used in the BMW navigation system. ALC is therefore
able to determine exactly where the car is at any point in time. Together with further information on the speed
of the car, the angle of the steering and lateral acceleration, ALC will then provide exactly the right light in all
driving situations.
The result is remarkable: even before you enter a bend, ALC illuminates the ongoing course of the road,
quite literally directing the headlights round the bend. A less spectacular, but equally useful feature is the
broad band of lights emitted by the headlights in built-up areas to include pedestrian paths next to the road in
the area illuminated by the lights, while out in the country the lights are firmly focused in a strong, intense
beam  modern technology for greater safety on the road.
Pixel headlights allowing unprecedented, quite literally spot-on, light distribution go even further into
the future, microscopically small, individually controlled mirrors taking over the function of the conventional
Experiencing Innovations