Audi Matrix LED Headlights on a Billboard Do the Opposite of What They're Supposed to

They do that by enclosing the oncoming vehicles and anybody else on the street that might get blinded by the strong light in an active cone of shade that actively follows their position. This way, the driver can still have the maximum amount of light projected over the rest of the scenery.

The idea behind the Audi A4 billboard installed in Brussels, Belgium, near the Central Station was a good one. It was supposed to track pedestrians and bicycle riders as they enter an intersection and light them up to make them more visible for the motorists.

It's a safety thing, just like the real headlights work in conjunction with a night vision system. In real life, if a pedestrian is detected in a critical range in front of the vehicle, individual LEDs flash briefly three times to alert the pedestrian.

The billboard, however, looming somewhat menacing over the intersection, shoves a very continuous light in their faces, sometimes even taking them by surprise as they're getting ready to cross the road. Not exactly what we would call "safe", but maybe we're all just a bunch of photophobic sissies.

The spotlight was probably handled by a real person, so we imagine this was a short event, the emphasis being put on filming the whole scheme and releasing the video on the Internet. Audi also forgot to use the mandatory quotation marks when saying "We took Audi's adaptive headlights and put them on a billboard," but worse things have happened in advertising, so it's all good.

But the whole stunt did make a point and, as you can see, it provided Audi with some media coverage. I'm not sure if that point was "Audi is a bonafide stalker" or "Audi has active LED headlights" but, hey, that's a risk you have to take.