The Digital Micromirror Device, or DMD, technology is the foundation of the new Audi Matrix LED headlights. A tiny chip containing one million micromirrors, each with an edge length of just a few hundredths of a millimeter, serves as the device’s brain. The mirrors may tilt at a rate of up to 5,000 times per second because to electrostatic forces.
What happens to the light produced by the three LEDs is based on where the mirrors are placed. The majority of the light is directed by a lens system onto the street; when a specific region needs to be darkened, the necessary light is sent to an absorber, which sucks it up.
In This Article...
Matrix LED headlights: what are they?
LED matrix headlights function by combining a number of LEDs, mirrors, sensors, and cameras (s). These latter vehicles scan the road ahead to spot traffic and changes in the surface of the road, such a sharp turn.
With the ultimate goal of keeping the road as well-lit as possible, they use this data to brighten, dim, or even turn off each LED inside the matrix. Matrix LED lights are sometimes known as adaptive lights as a result of these characteristics.
How do the LED Audi Matrix headlights function?
The vehicle’s most advanced lighting system right now is HD Matrix LED, an adaptable system that divides the conventional single headlight beam into numerous smaller rays that can be individually turned on and off to un-light small areas in front.
How well do Matrix LED headlights perform?
Let’s take a quick glance at the various headlight technologies that are now available on the market before we get into our test methodology and the vehicles we chose.
Just so you know, we purposefully left out bi-xenon headlights from this test. We decided to skip this technology and concentrate on halogen, LED, and laser as it has almost totally been phased out and there are only a few automobiles on the market using it.
Halogen headlights explained
Halogen headlights: what are they? These headlamp designs have been in use for decades. Halogen headlights function similarly to traditional incandescent lights, the heat-emitting bulbs you may still occasionally use in lamps and other light fixtures around the house.
Halogen gas is contained within a glass container that contains a conductive filament. Then, a current is delivered through the filament, causing it to emit light and produce heat. Older cars used to shoot that light through a glass or plastic headlight cover while it was contained within a reflective prism.
The projector cover, which is often made of glass, through which the light in modern cars passes to illuminate the road in front of the vehicle, contains the halogen light.
The vehicle’s high beam is then powered by stronger halogen bulbs. These lamps typically consume 50 watts of power, the majority of which is wasted as heat instead of light.
Pros of using halogen headlights include its low cost and ease of replacement by users on their own.
Cons of halogen headlights: Compared to more energy-efficient lighting technologies, halogen headlights use a tremendous amount of electricity, which increases fuel consumption. They also produce feeble light, and it is difficult to quickly change the intensity.
LED headlights explained
We’re glad you’re here. LEDs have actually been around for a while, just not as headlights. Light-emitting diodes, sometimes known as LEDs, are semiconductors that emit light when current is carried through them.
Since LEDs are dependable and don’t require routine maintenance, cars have been using them for a while now. All of those flashing interior lights, indication lights, and security lights are frequently LEDs. You can probably guess how much work it would take to change a dashboard indication light.
Depending on the vehicle, various headlight clusters may contain one or more LEDs. The cluster can create more light the more LEDs there are in it. Some vehicles operate a bi-LED configuration, which uses LED for both the low beam and high beam, while others have an LED low beam and a halogen high beam.
Since smaller diodes only need a small headlight assembly, designers can be more imaginative with how automobiles seem on the road, which is one of the reasons LED lights have recently become so popular.
While an LED headlight cluster frequently resembles a halogen headlight cluster (a reflective prism), the similarities end there. Some LEDs can last for nearly 20,000 hours (thats about 18 years if you use the headlights for three hours per day, 365 days a year).
Additionally, they consume far less energy and operate much cooler than halogen headlights, which results in lower fuel usage. The majority of LED headlamp clusters utilize about 15-20W, or about 1/3 as much power as a halogen headlight.
Pros of LED headlights: Reduced electricity consumption equals less fuel consumption. lower heat loss due to operating at a cooler temperature. incredibly lengthy lifetime.
Cons of LED headlights: Given their low maintenance requirements, LED headlights can be more difficult for consumers to change, and the clusters they sit in can be fairly expensive to do so. Additionally, the cluster contains more components to ensure that the lights are stable and do not point upward; these components can be more expensive to replace.
Matrix LED headlights explained
One of the most significant developments in vehicle technology recently is undoubtedly this. Although the transition from halogen to LED was a significant improvement in light quality and intensity, matrix LED headlights have raised the bar even higher while providing noticeable customer advantages.
Though a fantastic series of films, The Matrix has nothing to do with headlights. Matrix LED headlights take their name from the matrices that the majority of math and engineering students will encounter during their undergraduate careers.
A rectangular table filled with numbers, expressions, or symbols is referred to in mathematics as a matrix. What on earth is the connection to headlights here?
Similar to the rectangular table in mathematics, LEDs that may be individually turned off or have their power limits set in place of the numbers, expressions, or symbols within a matrix are used in automobiles. This has the advantage that you can operate one or every LED in a matrix to produce a distinctive lightsphere.
This is useful, for example, if you want the middle row of LEDs in the matrix to function at a constant intensity while the surrounding LEDs are operating at maximum power. This is much more useful when you connect them to a camera that can see the road in front of it.
The LEDs in the matrix may almost instantaneously be muted or turned off to avoid dazzling other drivers if the camera detects a vehicle in front of it, another vehicle coming from behind, or even a pedestrian. It is possible to operate a high beam continuously while varying its strength in response to the presence or proximity of objects.
When a pedestrian is going to cross in front of the car, BMW goes one step further by employing the matrix LED to rapidly flash an intense light in their direction. This technology fundamentally alters nighttime driving, particularly in rural regions, by making animals and other nocturnal creatures that you might normally miss due to other traffic visible.
This technology differs greatly based on the car you’re in, just like anything else. For instance, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class contains 84 LED modules compared to 16 in the Holden Astra (RIP). As a result, the S-beam Class’s will be significantly more accurate and precise than the Astra’s.
The advantages of matrix LED headlights are their incredibly adaptable versatility and ability to provide high beam coverage even when there is nearby traffic. It is simple to use and doesn’t require much driver involvement.
Cons of matrix LED headlights: If the headlight breaks, this technology might be expensive to replace or repair. Older systems have a risk of unintentionally blinding other drivers because certain systems function better than others.
Laser headlights explained
For the sake of this discussion, we will concentrate on the laser headlamp technology that is offered as standard or optional equipment on a number of BMW’s latest models, including the M8 Competition and X5 M Competition.
While the way they work may vary depending on the manufacturer, all of them function as matrix LED headlights when traveling below a specific speed. The speed at which BMW and Audi’s laser headlights begin to operate is 60 km/h. Below that speed, the headlights operate according to the matrix LED technology described above.
Three blue laser beams that travel through a series of mirrors are contained within the headlight cluster. The three lasers’ output is then directed through a component containing yellow phosphorous. The light is now around ten times brighter than an equivalent LED headlamp, making it far too bright to project into the road.
This light travels via a diffuser before leaving the module and illuminating the road.
When there are no obstructions in front of the car, the laser module turns on. When in operation, it consumes 30% less energy than a comparable LED module and, according to BMW, projected up to 600 meters away from the vehicle, providing better visibility.
Vehicles with laser functionality can fit within such a compact headlamp cluster thanks in part to the technology’s significant benefits, which include requiring even less area to operate than LED lights. Once more, this allows designers to experiment with novel headlight designs in order to take use of the design freedom.
Advantages of laser headlights: The increased light intensity available at speeds over 60 km/h is the most obvious advantage. For drivers in rural areas, having the capacity to illuminate 600 meters down the road is useful.
Cons of laser headlights: Compared to other technologies, changing a laser module is extremely expensive.
Our headlight test methodology
This is not an experiment. We sought to keep it straightforward because the actual testing process for headlights is extremely complex (you can view the IIHS headlight test and rating protocol here to see what I mean).
We conducted the following tests:
- To see the differences, test-drive each headlight technology on a rural road.
- At a distance of 50 meters from the car, examine the intensity of the headlights using a calibrated light meter (measured in lux).
- Low beam test to be conducted with light meter at 60 cm above the ground and 50 m from the vehicle
- To conduct a high beam test, position the light meter 1 m above the ground and 50 m away from the vehicle.
- With the exception of the BMW, which needs to be moving at a speed of 60 km/h for the laser technology measurement, all vehicles must be at a complete stop.
We developed a workaround for the laser headlight technology because it only activates at speeds more than 60 km/h, despite the fact that all light measurement testing was done at a fixed location.
For this, we drove up to a marker that was 50 meters from the light meter while using the laser headlights. The high beam would be manually turned off as soon as we reached that point, and a peak reading would be taken. Although it is certainly not the ideal situation, it was the quickest method to get a reading.
They were essentially chosen at random because we used the vehicles we had in the garage that week for the test. A Kia Seltos served as the halogen vehicle, a Suzuki Swift Sport (Series II) served as the LED vehicle, a Skoda Superb Scout served as the matrix LED vehicle, and the BMW X5 M Competition served as the vehicle with laser headlights (an M8 Competition was used for the country road test).
Remember that there are different headlamp technology available for some vehicle models on the market. The Seltos, for instance, offers LED headlights on higher-end models, but this evaluation compares various headlamp technologies rather than brand-specific headlights.
Country road headlight test
The Kia Seltos, which has halogen headlights for both the low and high beams, was the first vehicle we took out on the road. As was to be expected, the lighting was of fairly poor quality and had a strong yellow tint.
When we turned on high beam, the light strength increased but was still rather washed out, with little of the additional light being reflected into the nearby shrubs. The outside margins of the beam were also diluted.
The Suzuki Swift Sport came next. The low and high beams on this car are LEDs, and right away you could tell that they were much brighter than the Seltos. The beam’s boundaries were well defined, and in contrast, the light was a stark white or blue.
The light intensity increased marginally in front of the car when the high beam was activated, but the outside beam, which cast light into the shrubs and off the sides of the road, was much more noticeable. From the Seltos, the perceived quality of light was a significant improvement.
The Skoda Superb Scout was subsequently used after that. The Scout has matrix LED headlights that provide both high and low beam LED coverage. With wider coverage off the sides of the road, it seemed a little brighter than the Swift Sport’s low beam.
With regard to the increased brightness, switching to high beam was like night and day. There was more white/blue light coverage in front of the vehicle, in front of the vehicle’s path, and off the sides of the road, and its intensity rose noticeably. There was a tremendous lot of light.
We followed one of the other vehicles while turning on the matrix LED function to test it. Except for the car in front, it instantly offered high beam coverage everywhere. As oncoming vehicles got closer, it instantly turned off banks of LEDs so the approaching driver wouldn’t be blinded.
Finally, the BMW M8 Competition took place (we used an X5 M for the light meter tests, and an M8 Competition for the country road test). Below 60 km/h, it uses matrix LED headlights, much like the Skoda Superb Scout. It activates the laser headlight feature when it reaches 60 km/h and the coast is clear.
Below 60 km/h, there was great light intensity both in front of the car and off the sides of the road. When high beam was turned on, the coverage seemed to be on par with the Superb’s, but we thought the Scout’s visual intensity was superior.
To activate the laser function, we increased the speed to 85 km/h. We were quite aback by how little the light intensity varied. Although there was a clear reflection from a corner quite a ways down the road, it was fascinating to notice that the light directly surrounding the car didn’t appear to be any brighter than the Superb.
Headlight lux meter test results
Here’s when it gets fun. To make the results easier to read, we’ve organized them into a table. Each technology’s percentage improvement is compared to the Seltos’ halogen headlight technology, which had the lowest output light.
The findings are conclusive and demonstrate an astounding 95% increase in light reaching our lux meter after switching from halogen to LED using low beam. When the high beam is selected, that number increases by 280%. This explains why the yellow tint of the halogen light on our country road test contrasted so sharply with the more pure white LED light.
The Superb’s lights, however, really took our breath away. The Seltos’ halogen high beam was impressively outperformed by the beam’s remarkable brightness of 47%. You can see how far this technology has advanced in only the last few years from this.
The test findings confirmed our views from the BMW’s country road test, as you can see from the results above. Before the laser beams were active, the illumination wasn’t as powerful, and even when they were, it couldn’t quite match what the Superb Scout had to offer (470 per cent brighter than halogen for the Skoda versus 348 per cent brighter for the BMW with laser lights enabled).
There are several factors that could have affected this outcome, such as improper laser headlight activation (Audi provides a dashboard symbol when the laser light is active, but we were unable to see anything similar with either the M8 Competition or X5 M) or the light meter being outside of the laser’s range.
Due to the fact that, as we already mentioned, we are testing lighting technology rather than a specific brand’s execution, we did not evaluate the Skoda or BMW’s low beam performance. At low beam, there was hardly any difference in test results between the Suzuki, Skoda, and BMW.
Should you spend more for the LED or matrix LED option in your next vehicle? Absolutely. When you actually find yourself in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by animals eager to jump out in front of you, the results speak for themselves and demonstrate how much more light is accessible.
We’d be interested in hearing your thoughts on the tests. Could there have been something we could have done differently to affect the outcome? Which changes would you have made? We would adore hearing from you.