Foursprung: Night vision coming soon

Night Vision from Bosch shall make driving by night more comfortable and safer. The active infrared Night Vision system with a range of about 150 meters supplies the driver with an accurate image of the situation in front of the car. The high-resolution, brilliant image on the monitor is rich in contrast and details; it is very similar to the normal visual impression received with high beam. This allows the driver to better follow the course of the road in the dark, get better bearings of the environment and to see other road users or possible obstacles early on. Light from headlamps of oncoming vehicles is attenuated in the monitor image and no longer blinds the driver. All these features of Night Vision help to relieve the feeling of insecurity which overcomes many drivers when driving by night. The range of the low beam of a regular halogen headlamp is, as a rule, a mere 40 meters. Because of the high traffic density in Europe producing always a lot of oncoming traffic, high beam can only be used on rare occasions.

The Night Vision system produces a very detailed image:
The system consists basically of an infrared video camera attached between the interior rear-view mirror and the windshield, a display in the cockpit, the electronic control unit and two infrared headlamps. Night Vision is an active system on the basis of NIR (near infrared) technology. Active means: the road is illuminated with infrared light which cannot be seen by the human eye. Thus Night Vision renders all objects visible, even those not generating any sensible heat, such as road posts, road signs, lost cargo or parked cars, even road markings.

Bosch has confirmed that the innovative night-vision system it developed for Mercedes-Benz - as seen in the new flagship S-Class - "will be available in other cars as well in the future".

What those other cars might be is anyone's guess - arch rival BMW already offers a rival system developed by Swedish parts maker Autoliv.

Volkswagen Group is arguably the most likely recipient, but it will probably be a while before you can specify see-in-the-dark systems in your Skoda, sadly.

Foursprung, night, vision

Source: Bosch via Auto IT Blog

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