Merc's new night vision technology

Mercedes-Benz has unveiled an auxiliary spotlight feature for its so-called Active Night View Assist headlamps to provide what it describes as “an enhanced level of pedestrian safety”.

Until now Active Night View Assist has used an infra-red camera to record ghostly video of pedestrians within a pre-determined field ahead of the car and subsequently play it in real time on a monitor within instrument binnacle - thus alerting the driver to a potential safety hazard at night or in low light conditions.

The new feature, which is designed to work at speeds above 45kph, sets out to provide not only the driver but also pedestrians with an enhanced warning by employing a spotlight to illuminate the area where the camera detects their presence. The spotlight feature relies on the existing infra-red camera mounted within the headlamp assembly to detect pedestrians at distances of up to 80 metres and uses the main beam function of the headlamps to light up the immediate area where they are detected. Depending on the existing speed, pedestrians can be illuminated up to four times before the car arrives.

A second camera mounted within the windscreen, where it also assists the functions for Mercedes’ Speed Limit Assist and Lane Keeping Assist, records the position of other cars and determines whether it is safe to illuminate the area where pedestrians are detected. If the headlamps are set to dipped beam, the pedestrian is illuminated with the spotlight function beyond the field of the dipped beam.

Greg Kable