Automotive headlights have come a long way. Halogens were first introduced in 1962, and became universally used by 1978. Then, the HIDs were first introduced by BMW on their 1991 7 series sedan. Next came the LEDs, and they were first widely used just a couple of years ago. Along with BMW, Audi has announced their laser headlights, which work with LEDs as well. The lights are in a trapezoidal structure, with a matrix of LEDs surrounding the laser aperture lens. Inside the lens are the laser diodes used to emit the laser beams. Compared to regular LED headlamps, laser diodes can emit up to 500 meters (1,640 feet) which is roughly 3 times the distance compared to the LEDs.
Of course, there are some obvious problems of having extremely bright headlights. Laser diodes are fully capable of blinding people, and it would not end well if the oncoming driver happened to look at the laser diodes. Hopefully,these are problems that will be addressed as technology progress.
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