MERCEDES-BENZ has unveiled a prototype lighting unit that features a megapixel lighting pod capable of projecting animated or still images onto the road ahead.

The Stuttgart company’s current state of the art lighting system is the Multibeam LED light pod, which features 84 individual diodes, capable of forming a U-shape to keep other vehicles in a dimmed cone of light. But forget about all that. It’s become hopelessly obsolete at a stroke.

The new system is currently only in the testing phase, and would need to overcome a few legislative framework issues before it’s offered to customers, but, as spokesman Bernhard Weidemann explained, the possibilities are enormous.

The system’s flexibility is such that it can potentially identify a number of targets and dim the beams at them simultaneously while otherwise maintaining full beam.

“We can only work in monochrome at the moment, because there are certain colours that are reserved. Blue lights for law enforcement, red for tail lights and so on, but we’re only really starting to understand the potential of these lights,” he admitted.

There’s no word on when these lights will appear in a production Benz, but by the time they do, the price should be a little more manageable. When asked how much the development units cost, Weidemann admitted they were the price of an entry-level Mercedes A-Class (around $38,000).