German headlamp maker Hella makes swivelling, corner-illuminating lamps for nice new Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz cars, among others. Last month it launched a not-too-bright retrofit option for owners of older cars who might feel a little left out. Rather than gently shifting the beam of the main units, however, Hella’s DynaView Evo2 uses two fixed additional lamps that point to the left and right, when suitably bolted to the front bumper. When the driver indicates, the appropriate light is switched on to shed some light on the upcoming corner. A yaw-sensor also activates the left or right unit when it senses that the car is cornering (yaw is a sideways rotation and has nothing to do with yawning, even if this item is a bit dull). At up to 25mph. And, er, that’s more or less it.
More interesting is Hella’s Lane Change Assistant, a radar-based safety system designed to warn about vehicles sitting in a driver’s blind spot, scheduled to first appear in production cars - no doubt of the Germanic sort - from next year. Hella’s web site says that the radar unit will work “independent of darkness, soiling and weather conditions.” Which is handy given that soiling is quite likely if you’re the kind of driver that switches lanes without looking.