Ford testing headlight that could help keep driver’s eyes on the road

Ford has been conducting trials for some quite extraordinary tech like a connected traffic light system and special geofencing tech. Now, the Blue Oval has revealed that its clever engineers have come up with a headlight that could help keep the driver's eyes on the road.

With touchscreens becoming ever so present in cars, driver’s have to often take their eyes off the road to check the sat nav, tinker with the music or control the air-con. This is dangerous because while travelling at 90 km/h, a car covers 25 metres per second - meaning that if a driver takes their eye off the road for a short glance, then it could result in “driving blind” for ten metres or more.

Ford’s clever new headlight tech will be able to give the driver information like weather, upcoming turns according to the sat-nav along with projection of the vehicle’s width on the road so the driver knows whether the vehicle will fit or not.

By providing all this information, this headlight system will minimise the amount of times a driver takes their eyes off the road to see something in the infotainment system. 

“What started as playing around with a projector light and a blank wall could take lighting technologies to a whole new level. There’s the potential now to do so much more than simply illuminate the road ahead, to help reduce the stress involved in driving at night. The driver could get essential information without ever needing to take their eyes off the road,” said Lars Junker, features and software, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, Ford of Europe.