Hector Fratty

2010 was a good year for the global economy and especially for the auto industry, particularly compared to the difficult times of 2008-09. We’ve seen several significant innovations rolling out in the vehicle lighting and driver assistance fields. We have decided at DVN to celebrate this turnaround and have selected the 2010 lighting winners of the year classified in 4 different categories:
– Headlights of the year
– Brands of the year
– Technologies of the year
– People of the year

We present this week the two first categories. Next week week, DVN will present the two last categories.

Headlights of the year
2 headlights are ranked first in 2010: Mercedes CLS and Audi A7.
They are both LED-equipped with highest lighting performances.
Analysing the performances, the styling differentiation and energy consumption, we consider that these headlights are, at the same level, the headlights of the year.

1) Audi A7, LED technology

LED headlights come as an option. They reinforce the unmistakable expression of the A7 Sportback and provide all light functions with LED while minimizing energy consumption. The innovative all-weather light function has also been integrated into the headlights, replacing the classic fog lights.
The A7 comes standard with “Xenon plus technology” headlights, new all-weather light integrated into the headlight, and LED tail lights.

An adaptive headlight system with LED headlights is also available. The system includes variable headlight range control (low/high beam), which uses a small camera on the interior mirror to detect the lights of approaching vehicles or communities.
A unique feature of the adaptive headlight control unit is its link with the MMI navigation plus system. The navigation system sends advance route data to the light computer and it can do stuff like automatically switching on a cornering light before entering an intersection .