Conventionally, there have been known Adaptive Front-Lighting Systems (AFSs) that control the directions of optical axes of headlamps according to the steering direction, so as to improve the safety of vehicles during nighttime driving.
Further, in addition to the above, there have also been known high-beam variable headlamp systems (or Adaptive Driving Beam Systems) that use a light distribution pattern called “intermediate high beam”. This light distribution pattern shades a portion corresponding to a forward vehicle (a preceding vehicle or an oncoming vehicle) while illuminating the other portions with a high beam. Moreover, those systems detect the position of the forward vehicle by image-processing information from an in-vehicle camera and make the shaded portion track the forward vehicle, thereby securing the forward field of vision in a wide range and making it easy to find a pedestrian without causing glare to a driver of the forward vehicle.
Moreover, in Patent Document 1, there is disclosed a headlamp apparatus that calculates the coordinate information about a preceding vehicle based on information captured by a camera and swivels headlamps with an actuator to move the illumination range left or right, thereby making the shaded portion track the preceding vehicle.
PATENT DOCUMENT 1 Japanese Patent Application Publication No JP2012020715A