Mercedes' Futuristic Headlights Shine Warning Symbols On the Road (gizmodo.com) 139
In its new high-end vehicles, Daimler says it will introduce programmable, "million-pixel" headlights that project warning symbols and driving tips on the road. "The technology, which Daimler calls Digital Light, was demoed as a concept ten years ago, but at the Geneva Motor Show it's finally being introduced as a feature that's 'expected' to be available on certain Mercedes-Maybach S-Class vehicles sometime this year," reports Gizmodo. From the report: Sitting alongside the vehicle's standard headlights are a pair of small monochrome projectors that each feature "a resolution of over one million pixels," Daimler claims, resulting in an "HD-quality" image being projected onto the road surface ahead of the vehicle. Using data from the car's onboard sensors, as well as traffic and obstacle data that GPS devices rely on, the headlights project symbols like a snowflake indicating slippery conditions ahead, a construction symbol reminding drivers to slow down for road workers, arrows for where to turn, and even simple white lines representing the size of your vehicle so you can immediately tell if you're able to squeeze into a narrow parking spot. The ability to selectively switch off pixels means the S-Class' headlights could help drivers avoid blinding oncoming vehicles or pedestrians, as onboard sensors detect faces and windshields and automatically dim the brightness in those areas.
Can it show texts? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: Can it show texts? (Score:2, Insightful)
But then other motorists will read your sexting and see your junk.
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Re: Can it show texts? (Score:4, Insightful)
Watch this get turned into political messages, bad bumper sticker clones, and worse: advertising.
And for those that shine dick pics: make sure the finish of your car can be protected from deep key scratches. I sadly know a couple of people who wouldn't hesitate..... or cut you off with millimeters to spare.
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Watch this get turned into political messages, bad bumper sticker clones, and worse: advertising.
And for those that shine dick pics: make sure the finish of your car can be protected from deep key scratches. I sadly know a couple of people who wouldn't hesitate..... or cut you off with millimeters to spare.
Hopefully they'll find their way into a cell before they kill too many people.
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If you don't know two crazy people in your circle of friends and acquaintances, your life is dull. Fortunately, the ones I know aren't armed.
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Or maybe it is you?
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As for "dick pics", that is a favor to everyone around. They can't see my genitalia while I'm sitting in my car and that just isn't fair to them.
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Netflix? Don't be ridiculous. These are pure black and white dots.
On the other hand, maybe they could display Game Boy games using dithering.
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Re: Can it show texts? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Can it show texts? (Score:5, Funny)
Ever seen those building crumble projections? (Score:2)
Some neat effects can be done projecting onto building and statue faces and then suddenly animating them. Imagine the possible panic attack road hazards one could get. Huge cracks opening in the earth with lava bubbling up. A large 16Tonne weight suddenly falling from the above. A wrecking ball swingin down the road towards your windshield. A motorcycle tumbling end over end tossed by the incredible hulk.
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Godzilla. If this was a Japanese innovation, it would be Godzilla.
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Somehow a flat, 2D Godzilla just doesn't make give the impression you're looking for.
Now, the next generation of these things with holographic displays should be pretty cool.
Five years from now.
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Some of the pavement art artists use perspective to make things look three-dimensional, but only from one angle:
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/d7/0... [pinimg.com]
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Mmmhhh...it's not so great.
I tested it and I permanently had the feeling that someone was "co-watching" my film over my shoulder...
Kind of took the thrill away...
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I have seen the road many times, and there is no plot interest in the road or scenery. Would be great to have something interesting to watch other the road when I am driving.
Hey, with this technology, you can project pictures of pedestrians who aren't there right in your oncoming path. If you are skillful enough to "hit" them . . . you will get points!
Turn your boring drive to work into "Death Race 2000" . . . !
Broadcasting to others what you see. (Score:2)
Interesting idea in theory,
However the car is broadcasting data to the public, that an individual may not want to share. Lets say it is linked to the GPS and shows where to turn, for the most part that will be great, because it is like an enhanced reality display, except for the fact everyone else knows where you are going.
Or if you see the warning displayed and you failed to take the accurate action leaving to a traffic ticket, because you don't have the excuse you didn't know about the road condition.
Re: Broadcasting to others what you see. (Score:3, Insightful)
You should be letting other drivers know where you are going anyway, it's called using a turn signal.
Re: Broadcasting to others what you see. (Score:4, Insightful)
I was thinking more about stay straight for 30 miles. Then turn right you have reached your destination.
Turn signals are to tell people what you are going to be doing with your car. Vs telling where you car wants to be. Also this could give confusing information if the car says turn right and you decide to ignore that particular GPS request so the onlookers don't know if you just didn't use your turn signal, or you are going straight.
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This is why serious offensive drivers learn to turn their turn signals on randomly and then leave them on for extended periods of time without actually turning or changing lanes. Only by actively engaging in disinformation can you truly keep other drivers on their toes.
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or the classic 'indicate right, move left' combo.
Don't forget turning on foglights at night to make sure they're looking at your car too.
Re: Broadcasting to others what you see. (Score:5, Funny)
You should be letting other drivers know where you are going anyway, it's called using a turn signal.
The car in question is a Mercedes - your argument is invalid
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You think those people use their rear view mirrors?
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Interesting idea in theory, However the car is broadcasting data to the public, that an individual may not want to share. Lets say it is linked to the GPS and shows where to turn, for the most part that will be great, because it is like an enhanced reality display, except for the fact everyone else knows where you are going.
This privacy concern is becoming more and more irrelevant. Social media narcissists always seem to feel the need to tell the world what they're doing and where they're going every minute of the day. You could probably find out where the person is going by looking at their social media accounts. It's easy to find them online since the vanity license plate is their fucking Twitter handle.
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You only know what you see, and you only see the narcissists. They may be one in 10k and you won't even know about the others because that's how they like it.
One in 10K doesn't even come close to the number of users who regularly use social media on a daily basis. Hell, one out of every four humans is on Facebook. And when you look at how society now rewards narcissism (e.g. YouTube millionaires and sponsored Insta-celebrities), it's not hard to understand why so many people participate in oversharing.
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I don't have much sympathy for somebody getting a traffic ticket in this situation. Maybe they should also be forced to retake the driving test too?
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I am a proponent on Innocent until proven guilty. And living a life not worried that the state will find a way to arrest you or fine you for every lapse in judgement.
Because the issue are often far more complex. So the car tells you the road is icy, but where is it icy? So you may had been checking on your right side for ice, while your car hit the Ice on your left side, causing you to spin because you were breaking trying to look for the ice.
Now if the police came, and saw the car saying it was icy, you c
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except for the fact everyone else knows where you are going.
How is that any different than turn signals we are supposed to use now?
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Interesting idea in theory, ... However the car is broadcasting data to the public.
In the UK it is illegal to display unofficial road signs, including painting them on the road, even if they are "true". For example many people have tried putting up their own speed limit signs where roads pass through their village, and I have been told am not allowed to put up road works signs when I cut my hedge which is on a country road. These projected signs would seem to fall into the same category; at best they are a distraction to other motorists. What's wrong with a heads-up display, or have th
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Or if you see the warning displayed and you failed to take the accurate action leaving to a traffic ticket, because you don't have the excuse you didn't know about the road condition.
Or if the system gets it wrong and displays a warning when there isn't a reason and you react badly. I'm not sure I/we need more, possibly confusing, visual distractions when driving.
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That's good, but not good enough.
When I get in my car, even I don't know where I'm going.
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When I get in my car, even I don't know where I'm going.
That's the worst part. I get in my car after lunch to go back to work and BAM! The car drives me to the bar. Same bar every time. I think it's a problem with Toyotas because this isn't the first one I've had with this problem. I don't think my boss recognizes this car-fault and I'm running out of excuses. Maybe this car could project a line for me to follow so that I don't have to rely on the lane stripes which always seem to show up double?
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That's why I never indicate. Wouldn't want to risk anyone knowing ahead of time which way I'm turning.
If someone steals your car with this tech it will be the equivalent of running from the cops at night with LED blinky shoes.
We need new headlight regulation (Score:5, Insightful)
Current regulations are in the shape of 'no more than 55W (assuming halogen and ignoring more efficient lighting options that would produce far more light at that power level), light bundled in shape X'.
As a result, modern headlight systems are usually fine when viewed from straight ahead, but become uncomfortably bright when viewed from an angle (encountering such a vehicle on a curvy road, or cresting a hill). All too often I can't see shit because of that.
Re:We need new headlight regulation (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:We need new headlight regulation (Score:5, Insightful)
I wouldn't mind some lumen limits. I've been blinded too many times myself.
Brightness isn't the problem. It's vehicle height and headlight adjustment (as well as lazy people driving with their high beams on). Too many vehicles are being made stupidly high in the SUV craze but don't have their headlights adjusted downwards to prevent blinding drivers in normal sized cars. Manufacturers don't do this because it would make their vehicles unsafe to drive at night and lets face it, SUV drivers are terrible at the best of time.
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Some of the bikes in the NYC Citibike system have something like this. They project a bright green picture of a bicycle onto the road in front of you. I assume this is so cars can see you coming - not for you to look at. But it's super bright and annoying as hell. Now, part of that might be because the projector is mounted on the handle bars, so the image moves around as you swivel the front wheel. But still, imagine a road full of cars projecting bright lights onto the street. Uggh.
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" ' Brightness isn't the problem. It's vehicle height and headlight adjustment (as well as lazy people driving with their high beams on).'
You don't see the self-contradiction? Brightness *is* a problem. I'm blinded far more frequently by low slung go-fasties with those gods damned high power blue lights."
I would submit to the court that the problem of the HeadLight Brightness is related to the problem of the (lack of) Driver Brightness.
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High beams are a non-issue here. Maybe 1 in 50 cars would fail to dip them when they realise you're coming the other way. Most drivers dip them before you're even in their beam.
It's the dipped headlights that are aiming at oncoming drivers' eyes and not the road that are the problem. People coming over hills or a humpback bridge are manageable, the cock that's driving his penis extension behind you lighting up the inside of your car with his dipped lights is the issue.
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You don't need to limit the lumens, you need to control the beam direction. If you've been blinded either someone has their high-beams in your face (already illegal in most of the world) or their lights aren't dipped enough (already illegal in most of the world) or their lights have been modified with an illegal beam pattern (err redundant, but already illegal in most of the world).
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Or they just came over the brow of a hill, or over a humpback bridge, or they hit a pothole, or the road just isn't as flat as Holland.
Yeah, can't imagine any scenarios in which a stupidly bright light would never shine in another driver's face.
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Your issue is not the lumens. Any headlight that can suitably light the road will already blind the oncoming driver. This is precisely why variable dipped beams and projectors were invented in the first place.
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And if his beam his your eyes than his height is already illegally setup. A new law doesn't fix this.
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Colour temperature is important too. Why the super-high bluish-white temps? At night!? Yeah,because we can market it as "starlight"... whatever! Warmer colors (yellowish-white) would be better for both the driver and those who get blinded by that light.
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N. America could do with the same headlight lighting pattern as in Europe, where there's a sharp cut-off to prevent dazzling and an up sweep to light the edge of the road, which makes it easier to drive curves in the dark when there are oncoming vehicles. The downside is that N. American roads tend to have more overhead signs, which don't get lit up so well.
Oh, and maybe a real driving test so people don't use their lights inappropriately, some real enforcement to discourage those who continue to do so, an
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I'm in Europe - the sharp cutoff and upsweep are what's causing the problems.
The upsweep illuminates the road and oncoming traffic when you're going through a righthand curve. A hill, bump or slight misalignment puts oncoming traffic within the cutoff.
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As a result, modern headlight systems are usually fine when viewed from straight ahead, but become uncomfortably bright when viewed from an angle (encountering such a vehicle on a curvy road, or cresting a hill). All too often I can't see shit because of that.
This! My pet peeve is when the two vehicles are at different heights or angles. In the hilly Northeast, its a sort of roulette. The oncoming car's lights might be focused on an area that isn't an issue, or you might be able to count the veins inside your eyeball. Some times I think that the people who designed these damn highly focused headlamps never ventured out of Northwest Ohio, where the land is utterly flat.
A different issue is the stupid blue lights. It has been known for a long time that visual a
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If it is heading toward you, you probably want to see shit.
No more Dazzling (Score:2)
Total waste of nonsense. (Score:2)
Make it color and I'll be impressed.
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A black and white 1024 X 1024 almost HD DLP projector.
Yay!
Why is this better than HUD? (Score:5, Insightful)
For example, it shows turn by turn directions projected onto my windscreen, so I don't have to move my eyes or head. The location is just perfect and doesn't obstruct anything.
Would be great if we could understand the rationale Daimler used to project vs. HUD. I'm sure there's a reason, I just can't figure out what it would be.
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Also, HUD is where it should be - within the car, no distraction to others around it.
Imagine if everybody projected $WHATEVER onto the road... overlapping, rendering things unreadable anyway.
Beamers are nice gadgets, but I don't see a sensible use for them around a car, most
especially when it's moving in traffic.
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Would be great if we could understand the rationale Daimler used to project vs. HUD. I'm sure there's a reason, I just can't figure out what it would be.
The HUD is one of the few few features in newer BMWs that I would like to have in my '11. I've driven loaners with it and found it useful (would be more useful with the tach, which they reserve for M models IIRC). And of course the HUD works fine in the rain, fog, and any ambient lighting condition. I'm not sure how well these projectors will work in the daytime on a snow covered road. Seems like a solution to a problem that is already better solved.
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Would be cool if they could actively avoid illuminating snowflakes in a snowstorm so you could see.
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Cost is always an issue. There are most likely numerous other reasons as well. I've never seen a HUD that didn't look like vector graphics from the 80s and luxury brands are 20% functionality and 80% refined image. Additionally they are probably planning ahead and see this as a possible common feature in consumer vehicles in the nearish future and wanted in on the ground floor. Can't let Ford introduce such a whizbang feature.
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I'm not sure why projecting onto the road is better than using tried-and-true technology like HUD (Heads up Display).
As a BMW owner, you must know the importance of projecting your status symbol as far as possible!
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There wouldn't be a Slashdot story if it was just another HUD.
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This is a feature that it says will be limited to the Maybach line of vehicles.
They start at $160,000 USD.
They have to find new features to add in order to keep the cars attractive to prospective buyers.
And they have to do this year after year to make existing customers interested as well.
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Ah. So the real purpose is to advertise to others that you are rich when its dark and they can't see your car.
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Do you think the first autonomous cars will be low end models?
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This is really bizarre. I'm not sure why projecting onto the road is better than using tried-and-true technology like HUD (Heads up Display). Surely it would be better to project warnings etc. via HUD vs. onto the road? I have a HUD in my BMW and it is one of those technologies that I found genuinely useful and non-obtrusive.
They probably could avoid the HUD patents.
I've driven a BMW with HUD. It's awesome, inobtrusive, and very natural to use. The only thing is that I wish it would display more information. Bet it's not available to others due to a bazillion patents.
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This is really bizarre. I'm not sure why projecting onto the road is better than using tried-and-true technology like HUD (Heads up Display). Surely it would be better to project warnings etc. via HUD vs. onto the road? I have a HUD in my BMW and it is one of those technologies that I found genuinely useful and non-obtrusive.
They probably could avoid the HUD patents.
I've driven a BMW with HUD. It's awesome, inobtrusive, and very natural to use. The only thing is that I wish it would display more information. Bet it's not available to others due to a bazillion patents.
Toyota Prius has a heads up display, it's even better than BMW, it shows your GPS map and turn, it shows the hybrid system indicator throttle position, etc.
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HD-quality? (Score:1)
Why this continued bullshit about "HD-quality"?
1 million pixels is just about VGA-quality.
Re: HD-quality? (Score:2)
Ok, checking myself: if you think 720p is really HD, then good, your Benz can do that,
What could go wrong? (Score:2)
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Anyway, it sounds like just one more unnecessary thing in the car that will cost a nice markup to fix.
Exactly what I was thinking. Headlights are expensive enough to replace already - plus, making them more complicated will almost certainly increase the frequency they need to be replaced.
Not that Benz owners aren't already used to paying through the nose for simple car repairs...
Like the selective dimming (Score:2)
for other drivers/pedestrians, but the info should use HUD. Doesn't Benz offer this as an option? I know GM, Lexus and Honda offer it. I imagine the patents GM filed when they first offered it have expired by now. Its been in their cars for 20 years or more. The current car I have offers nav directions on the HUD. Works great.
Terrific (Score:2)
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Just follow the line on the road Gramps!
Oh no! (Score:2)
Advertisements for hemorrhoid treatments; Amber Alerts; "Happy Birthday!" messages; strobe lights to accompany music streams; political adds; soft core porn; hard core porn; racial slurs; state laws deciding which slurs are traffic offenses; biblical verses; prohibitions on Arabic language headlight messages in Alabama; being fired for headlight crimes; going to court and claiming that your headlights were hacked by neo-Nazis..... and... Trump tweets.
I think I'll just drive in daylight and take Uber w
Use in combination with long distance sensing (Score:2)
So far not useful. What would be useful is to have a lidar or radar system that can actually detect deep potholes and deer, paint it with a laser, and use the headlight projectors to indicate where it will be and where you should move the car, assuming the car is not smart enough to avoid them itself. Car mountable projectors actually could be powerful enough to fully illuminate a deer but what happens in fog? The headlights could at least alert you to something the car can detect while keeping your eyes at
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"paint it with a laser" my ass.
Blow it up with a laser. Mmmm. Venison.
Engineering vs development (Score:2)
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Nobody makes engines that last anymore. Thank 20 weight oil, but you do get an extra 0.1 mpg.
It's not just luxury cars. VWs are currently the _worst_ cars on the planet for serviceability. First step to replace a brake master cylinder on a new 'bug'...remove front bumper, no bullshit. Just say 'Hell No!'
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Finally! (Score:2)
and even simple white lines representing the size of your vehicle so you can immediately tell if you're able to squeeze into a narrow parking spot
So no more parking in two spots like an incompetent jackass?
Hacking? (Score:2)
Mercedes Vison (Score:2)
Peon, Peon, Peon, Peon, Peon, Dog, Peon, Peon, Peon, Cop, Peon, Bob, Peon, Peon.....
Probably won't fly in the USA (Score:3)
We have laws regarding public address systems in vehicles, the ability to broadcast images on the road will probably be similarly regulated and this feature won't make it into American cars for the same reasons PA systems are banned in non-emergency vehicles.
Disengage Targeting computer (Score:2)
and use the force [memegenerator.net].
Arrows where to turn (Score:2)
I can see this going horribly wrong. What if the arrow you are seeing on the pavement is being projected by the car next to you? Why not just a heads-up display for this sort of thing?
I don't understand the benefit (Score:2)
I don't see the benefit of this over a HUD.
Perfect projection material (Score:1)
Terrible Idea (Score:2)
Messages to tailgaters (Score:1)
I hope it can be set up to say, "Backoff asshole - stop tailgating."
Projected scenarios ... (Score:1)
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Yes. They are costing us and the whole planet too much, but still we need them to successfully maximize their profits so a little bit of money gets through for us to live off.
And as long as the system is one with the latter as a rule, and with money as a prerequisite for being able to feed ourselves, there will never be a real remedy for the aforesaid.
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What makes you think this is the technology that will enable that, when they already have speakers and a wireless connection to your car and yet don't blast you with adverts against your will all day?