Mercedes-Benz to use the new LED headlamps on the next-generation CLS

In the new generation of the CLS-Class, Mercedes-Benz is using the new technology of MULTIBEAM LED headlamps for the first time, until now the bi-xenon was the most preferred. Each with 24 individually controlled high-performance LEDs that will automatically illuminate the road. A camera positioned behind the windscreen that delivers the information with which four control units calculate the ideal light pattern 100 times per second. The Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class already became an icon of lighting technology back in 2010, incorporating dynamic all-LED high-performance headlamps featuring adaptive light functions as a world first in a production automobile.

The headlamps of the new generation of the CLS are all-LED headlamps and combine the merits of state-of-the-art lighting technologies to form the MULTIBEAM LED technology. They are able to automatically and optimally adjust the light distribution more precisely than ever before to virtually any road and traffic conditions, always ensuring extensive and bright illumination of the road and its edges without dazzling other drivers. They therefore offer a new level of safety, which benefits other road users too.

The crucial element is the new dazzle-free main beam. The purposefully further advanced camera-based Adaptive Highbeam Assist Plus system from the S-, E- and C-Class creates the necessary prerequisites. Using the camera positioned behind the front windscreen it detects oncoming traffic or vehicles in front, and mechanically masks them out in the light cone of the main beam so that the drivers are not dazzled. Consequently, the high-beam headlamps can be left on at all times, to use their full range without irritating or even endangering other road users.

A camera on the windscreen supplies the system with the information it needs about the constantly changing traffic situation and is also used by other assistance functions. Four control units per vehicle calculate the ideal light pattern 100 times per second and activate all 24 high-performance LEDs in lamp module individually.

The additional light output of the technology in the MULTIBEAM LED headlamps is not only used to increase the performance in partial high-beam operation, but also for high-beam operation. Even though the latter is activated significantly less due to traffic density, the range of the high beams was increased by about 20% to about 485 m.

The LED technology offers many advantages: the light from the very bright LED headlamps is closer to daylight and therefore perfectly attuned to the human eye. Studies have shown that the closer the colour of artificial light is to daylight, the less the strain on the eyes. With a colour temperature of 5500 kelvin, LED light is closer to daylight (6500 K) than xenon light (4200 K). The powerful single-chip LED diodes of the MULTIBEAM LED headlamps and their high lumen/watt output also contribute increased efficiency and with an average useful life of about 10,000 hours will also last five times longer than a xenon lamp.

Source : CarDekho