Increased accident risk at night

Customary dimmed head lights only create a visibility of 131 feet. Often, obstacles and dangers are only seen when it is already too late, especially if they are poorly lit or completely dark.

High beams illuminate a larger area, but also dazzle oncoming traffic. So they can only be used on about 15% of all roads.

The risk of accidents is significantly higher at night than during the day: Almost 50% of all serious accidents happen at night or during the twilight hours, although only about a fifth of all journeys are driven at night.

Better visibility means safer driving

Bosch has developed a solution that provides greater visibility for night-time drivers: Night Vision, an active infrared nocturnal visibility system. Two infrared head lights shine an infrared ray with the same range as long distance light without dazzling oncoming traffic, since infrared light is invisible to the human eye. The street illuminated in this way is captured by a video camera in the car (at the top of the windscreen) and displayed as a high resolution black and white image on a display in the cockpit.

Drivers have the route, other traffic and obstacles in view up to a range of 492 feet. They can detect critical situations earlier and react to them faster. So driving at night becomes safer.