2014 Audi A8 to get new 'Matrix LED technology'

The 2014 Audi A8 will employ the "Audi Matrix LED technology" and will make it to the US market by the end of this year, the company has said. This will be Audi's first model to use Matrix headlights.

Audi is set to replace the headlights in the 2013 A8 (above) in its upcoming A8 model

Under the Matrix technology the LED high-beam headlights are divided into numerous individual, small diodes working in combination with lenses or reflectors connected in series. A responsive control unit handles how they are activated, deactivated or dimmed individually depending on the situation. This ensures that they supply high-precision lighting and maximum intensity without needing a dedicated pivoting mechanism. Each headlight has 25 high-beam LEDs set as five per reflector.

"As soon as the camera in the A8 detects oncoming vehicles, the Audi Matrix LED headlights dip the relevant sections of the high-beam headlights. The system operates with such precision that it blanks out light that would shine directly onto oncoming and preceding vehicles, but continues to cast the high beams with full power on all other zones between and beside them. The closer an approaching vehicle gets, the more LEDs are deactivated or dimmed. When there is no more oncoming traffic, the high-beam headlights then resume full power, including the sections that had previously been off. The light that the driver sees is always bright, homogeneous and much more effective than that produced by competitors' mechanical dipping systems," said Audi.

These headlights also have the feature of warning lights when pedestrians are spotted. "When it detects a person in the critical range in front of the car, individual LEDs flash at them rapidly three times in succession, picking out the pedestrian clearly from their surroundings and alerting both the pedestrian and the driver," said Audi.

The lights also boast of a cornering light feature and target beams towards the bend. The lights use predictive route data that comes from the car's navigation system, coming on shortly before the steering wheel turns.