Of all the safety features that have come out in recent years, few have done anything to make night driving any safer… with the exception, of course, of night-vision systems that are only offered by high-end luxury makes. Ford->ke31 just announced that it is creating a new lighting technology that takes adaptive headlights to a new level.

Still in the development phase, Ford’s Camera-Based Advanced Front Lighting System uses existing technologies such as Adaptive Front Lighting System and Traffic Sign Recognition to adjust lighting in certain driving conditions. The coolest of which is the ability to dim the left-side lights when going around a right-hand turn to avoid blinding the on-coming driver while simultaneously curving the high beams to the right to illuminate even more of the road surface. When possible, the system uses GPS to detect turns (including roundabouts), and when a satellite signal isn’t available, it uses the car’s forward-mounted camera.

Another helpful feature of the system is the ability to detect road signs and add extra lighting along the side of the roads to make reading the signs easier and at a greater distance. And still more, an additional element of the safety feature is Spot Lighting, which uses the camera to detect road hazards (including pedestrians and some larger animals) and can warn the driver accordingly.

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Why it matters

Ford says that it is working on offering it in the “near term,” but stopped short of giving any kind of timeline. BMW->ke178 and Audi->ke14 already have similar technologies in place in Europe, but it has yet to be offered in the U.S. – Ford’s technology is being developed in Germany, so there’s still no telling if such technology would make it over here.