VIDEO: The Safety Benefits of Adaptive Headlights

Adaptive headlights, which swivel around curves in response to a driver’s steering movements, improve driver peripheral vision and provide more time to react to hazards on winding roads, according to a new study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

In the study, drivers using adaptive headlights, instead of conventional headlights, spotted roadside objects located inside curves as much as a third of a second earlier.

The study had 20 volunteers drive on a rural road near the IIHS Vehicle Research Center in Ruckersville, Va. Researchers compared the drivers’ ability to spot roadside objects from vehicles with fixed halogen headlights, fixed high-intensity discharge (HID) headlights and adaptive HID headlights. The roadside objects, made of aluminum, measured 8 by 12 inches.

For more details about the study, click here. To view an IIHS video about adaptive headlights, click on the photo or link above. 

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