In Europe, the sun is rising around 7 am these days, and it already dips back below the horizon around 4 pm. That makes for a short nine hour period of daylight. By 21 December – the first day of winter on the calendar – the sun has an even shorter appearance. Many people consider it stressful to drive in the dark and under winter weather conditions that are often harsh. That is why Volkswagen is offering relief in the form of powerful LED headlights. They are replacing xenon systems in growing numbers of model series – from the Polo to the Arteon. The LED headlights even come as standard in 22 equipment versions – including all three lines of the Arteon. If the car is also equipped with the optional ‘Active Lighting System', its interactive LED headlights utilise data from the front camera and navigation system to predictively illuminate the next curve.
Details of the Volkswagen LED headlights as illustrated by the Arteon: the standard LED projection system offers significantly better lighting performance than good halogen headlights. The LED modules also offer very long operating life. Moreover, the LED dipped and main beam lights emit light with a colour temperature of white daylight into the dark (instead of a yellow colour tone as with halogen lights). This reduces eye strain and makes car driving more relaxed. The two higher-level versions of the Arteon (the Elegance and R-Line) also feature the automatic main beam control system Light Assist; it is camera-based and automatically activates and deactivates the main beam in response to oncoming traffic.
As an option for the Arteon and many other models, Volkswagen offers what are known as full-LED headlights in projection technology with supplemental adaptive lighting functions. Two lighting modules positioned next to one another project the light onto the road via a lens. The white colour of the light makes a brighter impression than the light from xenon headlights. The outer module is known as a multibeam lens module which can be used to implement adaptive lighting functions such as special city lighting, country road lighting, poor weather lighting, motorway lighting, main beam lighting and advanced main beam lighting. Meanwhile, the inner flat beam lens module ensures optimal illumination of the near zone.
Volkswagen offers this expansion stage of LED headlights in the Arteon in conjunction with the ‘Active Lighting System'. It includes such features as dynamic control of the ‘Dynamic Light Assist' and the ‘dynamic cornering light with predictive control'. As an option, ‘Dynamic Light Assist' can keep the main beam constantly activated from a speed of 60 km/h. Here, a camera-based masking function controls the LED modules in such a way that they illuminate the road optimally without disturbing other road users with glare. The ‘dynamic cornering light with predictive control' illuminates bends via the lens modules with their variable control according to the steering angle. New here is the interactive functionality of being able to do this predictively as well – independent of steering angle – based on data from the front camera and the navigation system. In this manner, the Arteon is able to illuminate the upcoming bend in the road before the driver steers into it. This enables the driver to see the bend clearly much sooner. In addition, the light pattern of the headlights is directed optimally towards the radius of the bend.
An overview of the eleven Volkswagen that currently offer LED headlights (partly optional):
Article source: www.volkswagen-media-services.com