A ray of light in the fog...Automatically adjust the brightness of the rear of the car.

Vehicle crashes increase on dense foggy days
Up to 32 times brighter than before...Distinguishable from afar
Currently, both mass-produced and self-driving vehicles are applicable

[Anchor]
In autumn, when the daily temperature difference is large like these days, thick fog often occurs inland, increasing the risk of traffic accidents as the car in front of you cannot be seen when driving on the fog road.

Korean researchers have developed a technology to adjust the brightness of the rear of a car according to the degree of fog.

I'm reporter Lim Neol-sol for the report.

[Reporter]
In the thick fog, the car behind suddenly faces the car in front of you and hits you without time to use your hands.

The roads were paralyzed when more than a hundred cars collided in an instant.

On such foggy days, collisions often occur because the vehicle in front of you is not visible while driving.

[Joyoung/Giyang-si Ilsanseo-gu: (When the weather is bad) I want to see the lane better and I'm worried about an accident]

But domestic researchers have developed a technology that self-regulates the brightness of automobile taillights on foggy roads.

The rear taillight developed this time uses V2I (V2I) communication technology that allows vehicles to receive road conditions to display optimal brightness in four stages depending on the fog concentration.

When I compared the existing tail lights and the tail lights developed this time in a fog-filled tunnel, I can only recognize the tail lights developed this time at 60m from the rear.

At sunrise, when we experimented assuming a very foggy situation, we found that the newly developed taillights were 29 times brighter on average and up to 32 times brighter than before.

[Park Won-il / Full-time researcher at Road Traffic Research Headquarters of the Korea Institute of Construction and Technology: We analyzed the results through empirical experiments to find the optimal tail light intensity value according to the fog correction distance and implemented it as an algorithm]

The research team explained that the developed taillight brightness control technology can be applied to self-driving cars as well as currently mass-produced vehicles.

[Lee Seok-ki / Researcher at Road Traffic Research Headquarters of the Korea Institute of Construction and Technology: We plan to develop a taillight with infrared rays so that self-driving cars can see the taillight and apply it in a hybrid form.]

In addition, it was expected that this technology could prevent collisions and create a stable traffic environment.

The research team plans to create a system that allows vehicles to directly measure the viewing distance without the fog correction system on the road.

I'm YTN Science Lim Neul-sol.


Image recording: Hwang Yu-min