Mercedes-Benz S550 Headlights
From the high-speed AMG line to the classy Mercedes-Benz S-Class, Mercedes-Benz produces instantly recognizable and high-quality sports cars and sedans. The S550 is one of the Mercedes-Benz S-class, a line of the most powerful sedans with innovative technology to enhance the driving experience. One of those features is its active full-LED headlight setup in which the headlamps illuminate the road almost as if it were true sunlight through a series of unique pieces of technology.
What is the active full-LED system in the Mercedes-Benz S550?The full-LED system in the 550 (and other Mercedes-Benz S-class vehicles) is a headlight setup meant to enhance nighttime road visibility no matter the road conditions. The engineers designed the system to keep visibility no matter how you like to drive. There are a few pieces that make up this system, which are listed below.
- Active curve illumination: Sometimes it can be tough to see where a sharp curve takes you at night. Mercedes-Benz conquers that with the 550s active curve illumination, where the LED headlights actually angle themselves to match the angle of your front wheels. This lets you illuminate the curve as you pass through it instead of a few seconds later.
- Adaptive highbeam assist: This feature allows you to not have to worry about turning your high beams on and off when traffic is coming from the opposite direction. The sensors in the front of the Mercedes-Benz S-class cars detect oncoming traffic and switch the high beams to low power at the appropriate moment and then switch them back once the traffic has passed. This technology even works when the car is using cruise control.
- Fog lights: LEDs are much better at piercing through fog than regular headlights, and the full-spectrum light employed in the AMG line and the S line makes it even easier to see in foggy conditions.
The Mercedes-Benz S-class and E-class vehicles use 84 individual high-performance LEDs. Up until 2013, S-class models (including the S550) used more than 500 LEDs per headlight to properly illuminate the road. Newer models of the vehicle have lowered that number to 84. These extremely high-quality LEDs reflect within the headlamp before merging into a more high-powered beam. Though LEDs take far longer to run out of power than regular headlights, it is likely that you will need to obtain a new S550 headlight at some point in the lifespan of the sedan.