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I’ve recently spent about 1,000 kilometres driving two Mercedes-Benz models after dark, both of which were equipped with the optional Active Multibeam LED lighting system. My nighttime testing was mostly carried out during three evening road trips, where the high-tech lighting system put a smile on my face, wowed my passengers, and left behind some of the most memorable miles I’ve ever had on the road.
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Below, I’ll dive into my impressions of the system’s operation and benefits, as they relate to extended testing on the mostly-unlit highways throughout Northern Ontario, and connecting to areas further south.
My most recent tester, an E 450 4Matic, included the Active Multibeam LED system as part of its $2,400 Technology Package. Each headlight is upgraded to include an array of 84 LEDs that can be intelligently controlled. That’s 168 lighting elements that can be flipped on and off instantly, and also steered into corners. Unlike a conventional bulb, this setup turns each headlight into a powerful projector that can shape, bend, and manipulate the light they’re emitting in response to the driving conditions. The lighting system receives inputs from various vehicle systems, including its forward-facing camera, and optimizes the illumination continuously to best fit the current situation.
Drivers preview these capabilities whenever they start the car up at night, as a self-calibration light-show sees the system’s illumination animate to life ahead of the car as the beam pattern scans up and down, and segmented blocks of light dart left and right ahead of the car. It’s a dramatic start to a nighttime drive, as the LED control system does a warm-up stretch.
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Mercedes-Benz E450 Photo by Justin Pritchard
Mercedes-Benz E450 mood lighting Photo by Justin Pritchard
Mercedes-Benz E450 LED headlamps Photo by Justin Pritchard
Mercedes-Benz E450 LED headlamps Photo by Justin Pritchard
Mercedes-Benz E450 mood lighting Photo by Justin Pritchard
Mercedes-Benz E450 Photo by Justin Pritchard
Begin driving, and the forward illumination comes to life.
The front-facing camera identifies sources of glare like billboards, reflective marker arrays, and wet road surfaces. The lights react by reducing output over those specific areas, which makes life easier on the driver’s eyes. Reflective surfaces that would otherwise dazzle the driver and result in eye fatigue are automatically darkened, helping you see more comfortably in the dark.
As you steer, illumination is bent and pointed into the upcoming corner, providing more light where it’s needed, and less where it’s not. That’s added confidence, and improved safety. Using GPS telemetry, the system can even pre-illuminate a corner for you, before you steer into it.
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A laser-sharp beam cutoff minimizes light leakage and helps put all forward lighting to the best possible use. The LED emitters closely mimic the colour of sunlight, and carefully-tuned optics ensure a thick, even saturation of light up the forward roadway — as well as incredible reach to reflective surfaces far in the distance.
Mercedes Active LED headlamps casting a shadow to preserve another driver’s night vision Photo by Justin Pritchard
It’s a powerful lighting system designed to boost driver confidence — and in my time at the wheel, it did its most impressive work on unlit two-lane highways.
See, these headlights are so smart they can even make their own shadows to help you see better in the dark.
Most cars have two settings: low beams and high beams. Let’s call it 50 per cent lighting output with the low-beams, and 100 per cent with the high beams. It’s one or the other, and there’s no middle ground. Oncoming traffic means lowering your brights, and temporarily shutting off half of the lighting system’s output.
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Conversely, Active Multibeam LED works by leaving the brights up, but projects a shadow onto vehicles up the road to protect the eyes of other motorists — whether you’re following them, or they’re approaching in the oncoming lane. The effect is a subtle box-shaped shadow that appears, snaps to the vehicle ahead, and tracks it as it it passes you, or while you follow it. Rather than a two-mode situation with low-beams and bright, Active Multibeam LED allows more light to be emitted into your motoring environment more of the time, while protecting the eyes of motorists up the road. It’s a highly variable lighting system that works with no driver input, and after hours of testing, not one oncoming motorist flashed me.
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Mercedes Active LED headlamps casting a shadow to preserve another driver’s night vision Photo by Justin Pritchard
The system can even track its shadows over highway traffic as you merge into the motorway from an on-ramp.
The effect is a lighting pattern that’s highly animated, often-morphing, and constantly self-optimizing to the situation at hand. It’s incredible to see in action, and that’s a key reason the technology feels so well executed from the driver’s seat.
As you travel down a dark highway, the beam pattern can frequently be seen moving, stretching its range and reach, and opening and closing box-shaped shadow projections to help protect your eyes, and the eyes of your fellow motorists. These functions all have their benefits, but put them all together and the constantly-moving lighting pattern becomes the systems biggest strength: it keeps the driver’s eyes engaged and moving, far up the road. As you watch the technology work, your eyeballs are scanning around, exercising, and gathering information.
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Mercedes-Benz E450 LED headlamps Photo by Justin Pritchard
So, here’s a technology that makes it easier for you and your fellow road users to see comfortably in the dark — and in doing so, ensures your eyes are engaged, active, and exercising the entire time. This is important for long-distance nighttime driving, because exercising your eyes can dramatically reduce dangerous eye fatigue, and prevent you from getting hypnotized by the road.
Shoppers in more remote locales who frequently travel after dark will quickly find a strong return on their investment in this system — primarily for its ability to reduce eye strain and fatigue, while also making it easier to pick out detail far up the road. It’s a feature you’ll enjoy on every evening drive.
Keyword: Deep Dive: Mercedes Active Multibeam LED headlamps