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BMW has announced that their BMW Night Vision technology will be available in the 5 and 6 Series as of March 2006. Currently it is only available on their 7 series. BMW will be the only manufacturer to offer this innovative driver assistance system in a total of five model series. Mercedes provides a similar system available in the S-Class only, called Night View Assist. Both systems are slightly different ….

BMW uses a Passive infrared system which is called Far InfraRed (FIR). These systems rely on sensors which capture thermal energy or heat from warm objects such as people and animals. This image is than transferred to the in car screen and looks similar to a photograph negative. This system is not affected by on coming headlights or glare as it uses only heat to detect the images as a result the image is not cluttered with unimportant data, making it easier and quicker for the driver to interpret the resulting image.

Mercedes on the other hand, uses an Active Infrared system which is called Near InfraRed (NIR). This system does not rely on heat, it uses a series of projection bulbs and cameras that read the reflection of the infrared light in order to capture the image and display the information to the driver. This system is also not affected by oncoming headlamps but provides more image information which could be distracting.

BMW claims that their system can detect objects as far as 300 meters away and at an average speed of 100km/h reaction time can be increased by 5 seconds providing pedestrian and driver safety at night. While the system implemented by Mercedes allows for only 210 meters of safety margin in the best of conditions and is affected by the colour of clothing a person is wearing as well as light conditions such as dawn / dusk.

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Mercedes Night View

Both manufacturers have implemented their systems slightly differently on the inside of the vehicle as well, Mercedes has provided a smaller screen in a more logical area directly within the instrument cluster, while BMW has provided a larger screen, the screen is located in the centre stack, this means the driver will have to remember to look over to the stack adding another item to check while driving.

The cluster position seems like a more logical location as it results in fewer eye and head movements than a centre stack location.

Studies have been done to determine if adding these systems to a heads-up display directly on the windshield would be the best solution but the results determined that virtual images irritate the driver and is not the best solution.

This option is currently priced at $1950 Euro’s in Germany, but like all technology these items are slowly trickling down to the mainstream, by adding this option to all 5, 6 & 7 series vehicles, BMW is leading the way for the future.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 21st, 2006 at 5:17 pm and is filed under General, Sedans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.