If you’re tired of being blinded by headlight glare at night, and studies say many drivers are, the big French automotive supplier, Valeo, has an intriguing answer.
As one element of a range of future autonomous car-related technologies, Valeo has developed prototype high-tech glasses called Les Lunettes, which can reduce the intensity of oncoming headlights without dimming the brightness of the user’s car lights.
During the day, Les Lunettes work like regular sunglasses, but they can be activated before entering a tunnel to prevent glare from blinding the driver when exiting out the other side.
The Valeo shades use ‘active shuttering’ technology, which employs pulse-width modulation (PWM) to change the state of the glass’s liquid-crystal lenses from clear to opaque. The PWM is ‘paired’ with the driven vehicle, so that the car’s LED headlights remain bright, but those of oncoming vehicles are dimmed.
Valeo, a $16 billion company is growing rapidly, says Francoise Colpron, group president of Valeo North America. “Since 2008 we have more than tripled sales.”
According to Guillaume Devauchelle, Valeo vice president of innovation and scientific development, the company approach to development of autonomous driving-related technology centers on intuitive driving. “We are focused on the customer experience and the way you use the car,” says Devauchelle. “This means not only the technologies but the features which will help what we call intuitive driving. This is a combination of autonomous driving, connected car and an easy to understand man/machine interface, which is most difficult part of it.”
Devauchelle says that a gradual approach to introducing technology is needed. “We believe that technology is one thing, but public acceptance is something else. We need to educate the public from the current car level to these new cars, which will come step by step.” Valeo has developed a thumb operated touch pad on the steering to facilitate driver control of advanced systems. “We prefer people to keep hands on wheel and eyes of road,” says Devauchelle.
Those who imagine European drivers will be faster than Americans to adopt autonomous driving technology are mistaken. According to Devauchelle, the typical US buyer will be more comfortable with autonomous technology than his European counterpart because Americans have had much longer experience with automatic transmissions and cruise control.
Read more of the original article in Forbes.
