WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: BMW Uses Frickin’ Lasers for High Beams That Don’t Blind.

It’s perhaps more accurate to call these headlights “laser-powered,” since the light they put out is significantly different from the pencil-eraser-sized dot you’re familiar with. In fact, deep within the headlight’s guts, the light from a monochromatic blue laser is converted into output that won’t burn your retinas to a crisp. “A special optical system directs the rays from the high-performance diodes onto a phosphor plate inside the light, which converts the beam into a very bright white light that is similar to natural daylight and pleasant to the eye,” BMW explains.

The whole process creates light that’s ten times more intense than today’s xenon, halogen, or LED headlights—all while consuming 30 percent less energy. And BMW has some nifty tricks to keep that laser-derived light from blinding oncoming drivers.

Yeah, that part’s important. I always wondered why we didn’t polarize windshield glass and headlights at 90-degree angles to one another. You’d be able to see the reflected light from your headlights just fine, since it’s unpolarized, but the lights of oncoming traffic would be dimmed dramatically. Not really practical, I suppose.