IIHS Considers Putting Spotlight on Headlight Technology
CARS.COM — The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is in the midst of testing headlight performance for a group of midsize cars and plans to release the results in early 2016. According to IIHS spokesman Russ Rader, the results could eventually be factored into the IIHS’ Top Safety Pick Plus designation beginning, at the earliest, with 2017-model-year cars.
Related: IIHS Launches Crash-Prevention Ratings Program
IIHS has been studying insurance claims data to learn which safety technologies are most effective at reducing real-world crashes, and adaptive headlight systems, which change illumination direction in concert with the direction of travel, is one of them; Rader said the frequency of property damage liability claims was 10 percent lower for Mazda, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo models with adaptive headlights. Forward collision warning with automatic emergency braking — which is an active safety technology that’s currently factored into the Top Safety Pick Plus award — has been shown to reduce property damage liability claims by 14 percent, Rader said.
“The results are so compelling for adaptive headlights that we decided to look at those systems as the next technology that could potentially be added to our safety evaluation programs,” he said.
IIHS is measuring how well different headlight systems illuminate the road on both straightaways and curves. Besides adaptive technology, the type of lighting used, like halogen or high-intensity-discharge headlights, is resulting in significant illumination differences, he said.
He also said the institute is considering including automatic high-beam technology in its ratings because drivers don’t use high-beam headlights as frequently as they could when they’re manually operated. Automatic high-beam headlight systems turn on the high beams when it’s safe to do so and automatically switch back to the low-beam headlights as necessary.
Currently, the Top Safety Pick Plus designation is awarded to vehicles that earn good ratings in the IIHS’ moderate-overlap crash test, side-impact crash test, roof-strength test and head-restraint test; a good or acceptable rating in the small-overlap crash test; and an advanced or superior rating for front crash prevention.
