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The most frequent adverse weather situation zones is the rain situation. Therefore the lighting properties of the traffic situation with a wet road surface are measured in great detail. The target of the investigations is to show the necessity and the potential for an improvement of headlights for this situation. In the first part of this paper the results of experiments are shown, which analyse the visual performance of drivers during glare in wet road situations. In the second part rating experiments concerning comfortable luminance levels in front of the car during rainfall are described. To illustrate the result of these experiments the obtained rating parameters are applied to one example of a headlight beam pattern for a situation with wet road surface.

During haze or fog situations particularly at night time the visual range of drivers can be decreased in the dependence of the transmittance of the atmosphere. Today fog headlamps with an inclination of the cut-off-line at β = -2% and a focus on improved side illumination can support a better guidance along the road course, but can't compensate the disadvantages during fog concerning the reduced driver's visual range along his own driving lane. Improving the range of fog headlamps in comparison to standard fog beam patterns can provide safety benefits during night time fog conditions. Some results of investigations concerning fog beam pattern will be given in this lecture and the conclusions for an improved fog beam pattern will be described. In the field of future adaptive headlamp systems further improvements can be provided by activating the fog headlamp or by adapting the beam pattern to different fog density conditions automatically.