New car tech sees pedestrians in the dark

Bosch's new and improved new Night Vision in-car camera alerts you to moving objects on the roadside at night
Bosch's new and improved new Night Vision in-car camera alerts you to moving objects on the roadside at night

In the gradual development of car technologies, the vision of a self-driving 'autonomous' vehicle has always fascinated petrolheads and car designers alike.

The latest tech from Bosch – a Night Vision Plus viewer in your dash that lets you (or your car, rather) see pedestrians at night – is perhaps the latest example of these developments.

Bosch has upgraded the night-vision system which originally shipped with the 2009 Mercedes-Benz E-Class.

Night Vision Plus shows the driver a high-contrast image of the road ahead and, more importantly, of pedestrians and any other potential animals or objects that could well jump into the oncoming path of your car at any second!

Watch out! Sheep!

The system is based around a high-quality infrared camera placed behind the windscreen which looks for reflections from the car's infrared headlights, with the resulting images displayed on a high-resolution dashboard viewing panel.

The clever bit about Bosch's latest car tech is the fact that it can detect whether or not objects in or near the road (at a distance of up to 150 metres ahead) are moving or not

Of course, it is hardly the self-driving flying cars that our forefathers dreamed about (and you will need a new Mercedes-Benz S-Class if you want to see how it works on the road), but any new in-car tech that keeps those runaway sheep safe on our country roads late at night is a good thing in our book!

Via CNet

Adam Hartley