I heard a BMW commercial last night during which they extolled the virtues of BMW's newest automotive innovations, amongst them headlights that "follow the road" as it curves.

Preston Tucker had headlights that turned when the front wheels turned on his Tucker Torpedo . . . in 1948. (Yes, many early cars had headlights mounted on fenders that turned with the wheels, but the Tucker design had headlights in a rigid body structure, just as BMWs have.)

So BMW is proud that they're only 59 years behind the times.

 

Well, yeah, but its still an innovation for a BMW!

 

BMW's headlights follow the road, not the steering. Drift into a turn and the headlights won't.

 

the headlights on an '05 745i follow the steering wheel. The problem is the sensors are not faultless. I'd rather have a car with fixed lights and no annoying sensors to go out.

 

Either way I love the headlights on the BMWs

 

Without arguing originality (motorcycle lights could be considered to follow the road too, after the initial counter steer), the modern headlight following system in my e90 is fantastic. The effect is adjusted for driving speed and the inner/outer lights do not move equally. Very slick system and all it does is give you a subtle edge in curves at night.

 

Pen, a motorcycle headlight is fixed and only points the direction the frame of the bike itself is traveling... as lean angle increases you actually LOSE light on the road going into a corner, the more lean, the more the beam is cut off on the inside of the corner (and conversely more light up to the outside)... in fact it's a big disadvantage compared to cars.

 

Lexus LS430 does it. I think it follows the steering though.

 

why can't they just make wider-beam headlights???

 

PDX, I was just kicking at the originality-idea there. A prime example would be a Ural sidecar rig. That's a headlight that swivels into the turn (and the concept is as old as sidecars).