Light Designs in Cars Pave Route to Safety and Beauty

Chris Hanson: Have you noticed that headlights on new cars have gone from bland to fabulous. Jeweled is the industry named for front head lamps like these. But they're not the only changes they are improving the look and feel of car lighting. John Manoogian: Lighting is kind of becoming one of the last frontiers for designers to be able to differentiate our cars. Suddenly this technology is allowing us to do things that we never would have dreamed for years ago. Chris Hanson: Cadillac uses over a hundred low energy high visibility LED’s inside and out to give the new CTS a unique look and it’s not all just for design. Many new lighting elements improve safety as well. Jean Jennings: Lighting has really moved on from just a couple of headlamps, a couple of tail lamps and a dull light that you know the trick dome light went on when you open the door and went off when you close the door. It’s way beyond that. We now have set of halo lighting around the console, they figure out that we need little LED spots that you can direct on the task of the passengers and you don’t have to just turn on the dome light so it’s a lot safer for the driver. Chris Hanson: And headlights aren’t only looking better, they're seeing better. Several manufacturers are offering adaptive headlights that turn as the car is turning giving the driver better visibility going around corners at night. I'm Chris Hanson.