Headlights that swivel
One of the “highlights” of the tech displays was this demo of adaptive headlights. The lights swivel and obey commands from the drive-by-wire steering wheel to point in the direction the car is heading. Swiveling headlights were probably first thought up by Detroit engineer Preston Tucker and realized in his 1948 Tucker Torpedo, but they were mechanical monstrosities. ST’s solid-state version uses four PCBs, one containing two L99LD21 ICs powering LED daytime running lights, high and low beams, and turn signals, two step-motor drive boards containing L99SM81V motor drive ICs that do the light swiveling, and one board that drives a cooling fan with an VN7050AS driver. Everything is controlled by a Chorus 4M board, one that features an ASIL D processor. STM says the setup can work with several of its SPC5 platforms.
NEXT: One tiny PCB, four sensors
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