Mercedes MULTIBEAM LED Explained!

By | March 3, 2023

Have you ever heard of Mercedes MULTIBEAM 
LED? This tech is literally insane   pop your full beam on at 
nighttime and it does this! Hey guys and welcome to my channel my name 
is Nick O'Leary & today we're looking at   Mercedes-Benz MULTIBEAM LED however to show 
this off properly I need it to be nighttime! So then guys adaptive headlights so most people 
will describe them as like your full beam but   automatic at nighttime but in Mercedes-Benz 
it takes it just kind of one step further. So just covering the headlight design first, most 
cars these days have for example daytime running   lights or even like your side lights so these 
are the ones that come on automatically usually   during the day you can kind of see 
the car as in motion and in use. But at night time you of course need a bit 
more light than what your side lights or   daytime running lights will offer.

This is 
where the dipped lights come in so you can   actually see where you're going at nighttime 
however then if you're traveling at speed or   like I am right now in the dead of night, 
it is very very dark up here right now! Sometimes you'll need your full beam. Full 
beam is very very bright you can clearly   see where you're going however it is so 
bright you can dazzle other road users   so this is where adaptive full beam comes in. Basically in-built car systems like a Mercedes 
in this car also known as MULTIBEAM LED   will actually recognise other cars 
due to where their headlights are   and actually make a little cutout of black 
around them but put light everywhere else. It's very difficult to explain so 
let's just show you how it works… Now as always guys I do mention 
that specification does vary and   I know I mention that a lot on my channel   but that's because it does and it definitely 
varies when it comes to headlamp technology.

So in America did you know that apparently 
I was reading this in the news the other day   that adaptive headlights just pretty 
much don't exist so the ones that I've   heard with the branding called Matrix LED's 
the ones that cause the kind of cut outs of   cars in front of you and you've got full beam over 
on the right and left but not where the car is   those haven't been allowed and I find it quite 
amazing actually because i thought that you know   America did have that but that's just one 
case in point where where spec does vary! Now of course I have read that that has now 
changed so I'm guessing manufacturers can   now implement that technology and provide it 
to the end users of the cars which would be   great because what you're about to 
see here is some pretty cool tech! So in this Mercedes-Benz right 
here we have MULTIBEAM LED   and I do have it enabled right now so if you 
ever want to know how this works basically   you know when you put your full beam on 
with the stalk over on the left hand side,   you push it away from you and down 
on the bottom right you'll have an   automatic "A" symbol appear and what that 
basically means is now it's on automatic.

So when it's dark enough the car will then 
automatically put full beam on everywhere   and then what it does is some pretty cool 
things where it will actually blank out   the car that's coming towards you 
and track it and move it across   so as I said it's very difficult for me to 
explain so let's just show you what it looks like. So here we go then guys this is a full live 
example for you all so I'm driving of course   in the dead of night and as you can see right 
here, the lights of this car are just literally   changing and adapting to the car in front so see 
I've got a full beam, if i go around the corner   here you'll see that it'll make a cut out of all 
the cars coming towards you and the car in front.

So I've got a full beam over on the left hand 
side and now full beam over on the right hand   side but watch it'll track that car as it 
goes around the corner how cool is that? It's amazing how that happens I mean you 
have to literally sit here just to see it   in action see as I move around the corner it 
just keeps that black cut out of where the car   is in front so it basically gives you as much 
light as possible on the left and the right but   without dazzling other road users and it will 
just constantly adapt and change all the time. It's so cool! Now one other unique feature of MULTIBEAM LED is 
a thing called Cornering Light.

So Cornering Light   basically means that when you're traveling around 
about under 24 mph and you use your indicator   MULTIBEAM LED will actually illuminate 
the relevant side of whichever side you   put your indicator on so it just gives you 
a bit more light over the side when you're   going to make that turn and it's especially 
useful when it's quite dark at night time! Now for anyone that paid close attention to their 
science lessons at school, they'll know that light   travels in a straight line which is great 
for kind of driving during the dead of night   however if you want to see around a corner well 
that's sadly that's not that technically possible! But what Mercedes-Benz do with MULTIBEAM 
LED is as you turn the steering wheel   you'll notice that the angular kind of lens 
of the lights will move in conjunction with   the steering wheel and you'll be surprised 
at how much of a difference that makes! It's only very subtle but it does make 
a huge difference especially right now   because this road is very very dark there are no 
street lights or anything like that.

As I said   the only lights here are the ambient lighting 
which is just kind of illuminating all the   the inside, I've got my headlights and 
then I've got this light here which   is quite bright but this definitely does help 
because I can clearly see everything around me. So watch here as I go around this corner 
as I turn the steering wheel to the right,   the lights have moved literally 
straight away…you can see here: If I move to the left, to the right, to the left, It just moves depending on your steering input. Now you've all seen this before 
when you come across a traffic sign,   you'll sometimes find that the reflective 
material on them is really really bright. Now not all traffic signs are the same some 
are kind of bearable but some really shine   back into your eyes and it depends on 
the angle and I guess to be honest,   the height of your car and the reflective 
material used on those traffic signs themselves   but again MULTIBEAM LED comes to the rescue if 
there is sufficient light shining back into your   eyes from that traffic sign the car can actually 
make a cut out a bit like what it does with the   headlights of oncoming cars and just reduce that 
glare so it doesn't shine in your face too much.

Mercedes think of everything! And they really do think of everything as well 
so even Mercedes-Benz have gone to the efforts of   analysing how much kind of light 
might come off the road as well   so if it's been raining and you're 
driving in the dead of night   and the road is a bit shiny with the 
water there kind of all sat in the road   and sometimes that can be a bit glarey as well 
so they even reduce the light intensity of that   as well by reducing the lights on the very 
very bottom of your headlights themselves. So if that's current technology now 
how can it get better than this? Well apparently Mercedes-Benz have 
made a system called "Digital Light"   which if you recall the MULTIBEAM LED 
from this video has 84 LED per headlight. Digital Light has 1.3 million pixels per 
headlight! So that's 2.6 million per car! And this system is apparently a 100x better   than MULTIBEAM LED so let me know down below if 
you'd like me to cover that in a future video! And there we go guys that concludes this 
week's video on Mercedes-Benz MULTIBEAM LED! But guys let me know what you 
think in the comments section   down below and likewise if you have 
a suggestion for a potential future   video let me know down below and I 
might just consider your suggestion! Well guys as always a huge shout out 
to Sandown Mercedes-Benz as they help   provide access to all the cars you see in the 
videos on my channel so huge shout out to them   but guys as always thank you so much for watching   hit that like button and that subscribe 
button until next week see you then!

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