This is a pretty cool feature I was reading a little more about today. It’s called dynamic cornering lights and comes standard on the new Porsche Cayenne Turbo. The basics are when you come wheelin around a corner, the electronics account for a number of factors like speed and how hard you’re cornering, and turn the headlights into the corner to help you better see what’s coming up on the road.
Here’s a little bit from Porsche’s site:
As you turn into a bend, the dynamic cornering lights automatically adjust to provide better illumination of the road. The system uses a series of sensors to monitor the speed, yaw velocity (speed of rotation around the vertical axis) and steering lock to calculate the characteristics of each corner. Based on this data, the system then calculates the optimal angle of illumination, up to a maximum swivel angle of 15 degrees on the Bi-Xenon headlight units. As a result, the corner is easier to see, and potential obstacles are easier to identify.
If that isn’t cool enough, Porsche has also included something called static cornering lights. Check it out:
The static cornering lights are extremely useful when turning at an intersection, even at lower speeds. Depending on the amount of steering lock applied, they can, for example, provide helpful illumination of an unlit side street.
Both, as I mentioned, are standard on the new Cayenne Turbos, and available as options on the standard Cayenne and the S models.
This is one of those areas that you don’t always expect technology to make that big of an impact and surprises you when it does. Sure there are better lights and whatnot, but this has the potential for being a game changing enhancement that will improve safety on the roads. Porsche has even integrated dynamic leveling and a cleaning system into the whole setup.
Porsche is once again proving it’s forward thinking and attention to improving not only safety but the driving experience. Won’t be long and we’ll be adding features like this to our next mini-van.
why are great safety features like this only on higher priced cars? hopefully they find a way to get this in all cars soon.
I know the m3 had these installed standard…im wondering if all bmw’s come equipped with this feature. Surprised Porsche has taken this longt to catch on.
It is a great thing for Porsche to start offering these lights. It is another one of those things that are a luxury item now, but several years from now, many cars will have them standard.
not to burst anybody’s bubble but there was a car once made called a Tucker and it had 3 front lights and the middle light turned with the steering wheel. i believe it was made over 50 years ago.
i’m just surprised this hasn’t been standard for the last 20 years on all cars
@Mitchell – because when you are spending $15k on a new Honda they can’t really justify a system that costs $1k to add to a vehicle.
@Russ – They are an upgraded package on BMW’s, so not standard, but they are AWESOME!
@Andrew, thanks for that info. I was under a different impression. Either way, they’re awesome no? Its kinda sick when you’re driving on a dark road that twists and turns…
Its gangster.
I agree. 3 lights should be standard on every car.
Pretty weird thinking about a 3rd light coming at you at night. Almost alien…
@Russ – I looked into it a little bit and it looks like they are standard now on X5’s, but not on some other models.
I’m sure anything beyond a regular 3 and 5 series would be standard. M series for sure, like you said the x5 (doubt the x3) and probably the new 7’s.
Well the new 1 series does not – that’s for sure. I just checked. 🙂
That a great feature, especially for Oregon roads. Great innovation.
hopefully when going around a left hand corner the lights won’t blind the oncoming traffic
James, the lights only turn up to a 15-degree angle. From my experience, that is not enough to be pointed directly at an oncoming driver on the inside of a curve.
nice added safety feature