Nissan Enhancing Headlight Technology to Protect Drivers – Safety

Nissan announced it’s enhancing headlight technology as a part of its mission to guard people and help drivers avoid dangerous situations.

The corporate cited that greater than 90% of accidents are brought on by human error, saying increased illumination of LED (light-emitting diode) headlights allows drivers to see more clearly ahead but could cause additional glare for drivers within the oncoming lane.

Brad Chisholm, an engineer on the outside Lights, Mirrors, and Wipers team at Nissan Technical Center North America in Farmington Hills, Mich., discussed the advancements in LED technology.

“You need to see and be seen. LEDs might help with each,” Chisholm said. “We have now the power to carve out that area of the oncoming lane with all the things around it being vibrant and the within being super dark. We’re capable of push the boundaries using LEDs.”

Nissan Finds Precise Patterns Help Drivers

Over the past twenty years, LED headlights have steadily replaced halogen and high-intensity discharge (also generally known as xenon) lamps. Halogen lamps emit a warm, yellow light, while LEDs emit a cool, white light. Along with being brighter, LEDs are about 80% more energy efficient and last persistently longer than halogen bulbs.

Chisholm said LEDs also allow engineers to design a precise low-beam headlight pattern that each illuminates the road and reduces glare. This “anti-glare notch” makes it easier for oncoming drivers to see without being dazzled by approaching lights, in accordance with Nissan. The strongest, brightest light is aimed toward the lane of travel, while dimmer light is solid toward the oncoming lanes.

Engineers create these notches by directing the sunshine in specific directions and creating physical barriers throughout the headlight housing to dam the sunshine in other directions. While these notches exist with halogen lamps and are required by regulations, they’re more well-defined with LEDs.

LEDs also allow designers to push the boundaries of design, largely because they’re smaller than halogen bulbs despite being greater than twice as vibrant.

Recently, LED headlights have turn into even smaller, in accordance with Nissan. Though LEDs produce far less heat than halogen bulbs, they still generate some heat that’s absorbed by a bit of aluminum called a “heat sink.” Over the past few years, heat sinks have shrunk on account of LEDs becoming much more efficient, allowing designers to dream greater.

“It gives us freedom for styling,” Chisholm said. “We’re capable of do more with LEDs than we were capable of do with halogen bulbs, like creating light pipes and swoops in taillamps and daytime running lights.”

Nissan offers LEDs as standard or optional equipment on all 2024 U.S. models.

A Look Back 2023 Nissan Announcements

Nissan announced on Sept. 26 the brand new model yr Nissan Versa. The compact sedan comes with essentially the most standard safety technologies in its class, which include class-exclusive Nissan Safety Shield 360 technologies.

Moreover, the corporate revealed updates on the 2024 Nissan Sentra. Design changes to Sentra for the 2024 model yr include a reshaped front fascia with a brand new interpretation of Nissan’s V-motion grille, updated headlights, and a brand new available 16-inch alloy wheel design.

Nissan made electrification efforts in 2023, as it reached an agreement with Tesla to adopt the North American Charging Standard (NACS) starting in 2025. It will provide Nissan customers with much more selections when charging their electric vehicles.