The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) is working to incorporate a headlight-rating segment into its analysis of cars’ safety performance, and it is working to do so soon. According to Automotive News, the research firm is looking to tie headlight performance to a car’s safety rating as soon as 2017. This means that, in order for a car to attain, say, the highest rating of Top Safety Pick +, its headlights must meet yet-to-be-determined criteria. Most likely, expensive technologies such as steerable headlight modules, LED bulbs, and more will be necessary items.

The implications of IIHS’s move are far-reaching?just look at the results of the recently introduced (by car-development standards) small-overlap crash test?and could force automakers to adopt fancier lighting tech sooner. Currently, an IIHS Top Safety Pick is earned by way of “good ratings in the moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraint tests, as well as a good or acceptable rating in the small overlap front test,” according to IIHS. A Top Safety Pick +, on the other hand, must “earn an advanced or superior rating for front crash prevention.” Most recently, IIHS hung the requirement that cars have front-crash prevention technology (automatic braking and collision warning) around the neck of a Top Safety Pick + rating; as the firm notes, “Top Safety Pick + winners with optional front crash prevention qualify for the higher award onl...