Adaptive headlight tech is handy, but it’s quite a complex system in place to just have the car point its lamps around a curve. Don’t get us wrong, it’s certainly worth it and we have no issue with directional lights giving us that extra fraction-of-a-second reaction time, but for all the servos and GPS systems and actuators that go into it, couldn’t we come up with something a little more modern than a technology that can be traced back to a 1948 Tucker? Opel, GM’s European subsidiary, felt the same way, and are working on headlights that look where you look.
Opel has already been busy developing a system of automotive lighting with eye-tracking tech: headlights that will light up the areas in front of you just by glancing at them.
“We’ve been pursuing this concept of controlling the direction and intensity of light based on where the driver is looking for around two years. The more we understand the benefits of this technology, the more intensively we push ahead with our joint project,” says Ingolf Schneider, Director Lighting Technology at Opel.
So far, the system in place uses infrared sensors and photo-diodes that scan the eye 50 times per second, which works in dusk and nighttime conditions. A fast processing computational program then instantaneously reacts, adjusting the beam both horizontally and vertically, depending on needs.
There are limits built in, however, to keep the lights on your car swirling wildly around erratically and blinding everyone on the road. The range itself is limited to a certain cone of effect, and a sophisticated delay algorithm has been worked in to keep the headlights from translating all the involuntary eye movements as commands to shift the beam, making the car look terribly paranoid.
There’s no particular time frame for when this technology will start to appear in Opel vehicles, but if its something that catches on, parent company GM will surely move it through the ranks of its other vehicles.
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.