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Has anyone seen how the digital headlamps highlight street signs, and other special features that MB advertises, in NA?
I haven’t. The headlamps seem no different, actually not as bright, as my G Wagon.
When I did a firmware hack on my 2021 GLS63, the Euro-spec headlight functions included spotlighting signs. It's pretty amazing, but not as amazing as full-time beam-forming brights.
I had my lights recoded a year ago and I’ve never noticed anything like that feature. Street signs are sometimes blacked out when they reflect in fact.
Has anyone seen how the digital headlamps highlight street signs, and other special features that MB advertises, in NA?
I haven’t. The headlamps seem no different, actually not as bright, as my G Wagon.
You won't see them. The NHTSA wrote a recommendation that basically rules out the European headlight standards in the US. However, you can get the European operation turned on by coding, and with the new laws about headlights is probably to do. Seems the NHTSA is still captured by US parts makers in this area. I am surprised they allow LED headlights at all…
Right but Mercedes advertises these features in Canada/US, why would they if they don’t work? Doesn’t make sense. There are MORE features available in Europe that we don’t get in NA, but I’m sure these features are there. I just haven’t noticed them. Has anyone?
What is below is specifically from Mercedes Canada. They would not be describing these features if they were not offered!
Advanced MULTIBEAM LED headlamps use 84 high-performance LEDs to project more than a million pixels per lamp. Using data from the car's camera, navigation and sensor networks, each pixel's brightness can be adapted virtually in real time to the road's curvature, lane formation and topography, along with driving speed, steering angle, and vehicles ahead. ULTRA RANGE Highbeams plus functions for cornering, roundabouts, junctions and varying weather conditions further help to optimize your vision.These assistance functions are revolutionary:
Warning of recognized roadworks by projecting an excavator symbol onto the road surface
Aiming a spotlight at pedestrians detected at the roadside as a warning
Traffic lights, stop signs or no-entry signs are pointed out by projecting a warning symbol onto the road surface
Assistance on narrow road lanes by projecting guidelines onto the road surface
Indication of the start of cooperative lane change
Warning and directional guidance when Lane Keeping Assist or Blind Spot Assist detects a hazard
The topographic light takes hills into account on the basis of navigation maps, especially crests and depressions: When driving over a crest, for example, the headlamp does not shine into the sky, but is swivelled down as parallel as possible to the road. In depressions, the light cone is raised and thus practically all the desired range is obtained.
There are several other threads detailing why this is the case, but long story short, the US has a rag tag set of regulations around lighting that don't make sense in the modern age, and they aren't willing to change them or make them standard across the entire country. So you have to do a firmware hack to enable the European style lighting in the US.
Also note that Multibeam are the old version. Digital Light is even more modern and capable.
There are several other threads detailing why this is the case, but long story short, the US has a rag tag set of regulations around lighting that don't make sense in the modern age, and they aren't willing to change them or make them standard across the entire country. So you have to do a firmware hack to enable the European style lighting in the US.
Also note that Multibeam are the old version. Digital Light is even more modern and capable.
These are Digital Multibeam, I just didn’t paste the entire press release (see below and the link). As mentioned, these are listed as available, at least in Canada. I guess not in the US but MB Canada would not be posting info about these features if they weren’t enabled.
The standard revolutionary DIGITAL LIGHT headlamp technology enables innovative functions such as the projection of auxiliary markings or warning symbols onto the road surface. DIGITAL LIGHT has a light module with three extremely powerful LEDs in each headlamp, whose light is refracted and directed by 1.3 million micro-mirrors. The resolution is therefore more than 2.6 million pixels per vehicle.
DIGITAL LIGHT uses the technology of video projectors with micro-mirrors that take up the same space as a thumbnail, and a control unit with a powerful graphic processor uses an HDMI-like connection to generate a continuous video stream to the mirrors. The new headlamp in the EQS can be recognized by its concave lens and the blue illuminated Mercedes-Benz lettering.
The beam divided into 1.3 million pixels makes absolutely precise light distribution possible. High- Beam Assist is highly accurate when masking out oncoming traffic or traffic signs. Light/shadow graduations and the light distribution of all the other adaptive light functions are also realized with considerably more precision, optimizing illumination by e.g. fog light, motorway light or city light.
You won't see them. The NHTSA wrote a recommendation that basically rules out the European headlight standards in the US. However, you can get the European operation turned on by coding, and with the new laws about headlights is probably to do. Seems the NHTSA is still captured by US parts makers in this area. I am surprised they allow LED headlights at all…
OP is in Canada where the matrix headlights are activated.
With all those pixels I can’t understand why MB engineers couldn’t incorporate cornering lights. Turning into streets with no street lights is a black hole, especially with the massive A pillar. The ‘19 E53 with fewer pixels has them.
There is no official timeline for when Mercedes-Benz will offer fully operational adaptive driving beam (ADB) headlights in the USA. While the hardware has been on Mercedes vehicles in the US for years, the functionality is disabled by software to comply with US regulations.
Here's a breakdown of the factors involved:
Regulations still block use. In February 2022, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) updated its rules to permit ADB technology. However, automakers and safety advocates say the new rules make it difficult to implement the feature.
The US lags behind Europe. ADB technology has been standard on Mercedes-Benz vehicles in Europe and other markets since 2006. The difference in American regulations means the full potential of these lights is not enabled.
The path forward is unclear. Because the current US rules are so challenging for manufacturers to follow, the industry must wait for further regulatory changes or clarification from the NHTSA before widespread use of ADB becomes possible.
What's available now
Instead of full ADB, US-spec Mercedes vehicles currently offer:
Automatic high beams, which switch the high beams off when they detect an oncoming vehicle.
"Dazzling light displays", which are special animations for the headlights when the vehicle is started or shut off.
Until new regulations are passed or the current ones are reinterpreted, your Mercedes' headlight capabilities will remain limited in the US.
With all those pixels I can’t understand why MB engineers couldn’t incorporate cornering lights. Turning into streets with no street lights is a black hole, especially with the massive A pillar. The ‘19 E53 with fewer pixels has them.
I miss the cornering lights, and I miss the intersection lighting from my Porsche (where both corner lights turn on when GPS detects you're at an intersection).
With all those pixels I can’t understand why MB engineers couldn’t incorporate cornering lights. Turning into streets with no street lights is a black hole, especially with the massive A pillar. The ‘19 E53 with fewer pixels has them.
Yes, it's so bad for such an high-end SUV. Surprising they paid so much attention to many details but completely missed this. Feels like it was never tested on dark streets. Unfortunately, all the interior lighting (hyperscreen+ambient lighting) doesn't help either. Much lesser brands do a much better job at this. Hopefully, maybe they can fix this with a simple software update, if it's not a hardware limitation.
I miss the cornering lights, and I miss the intersection lighting from my Porsche (where both corner lights turn on when GPS detects you're at an intersection).
Agreed. My 2019 G550 has better lighting, including corner lighting.
