Intelligent car light interaction enables car lights to "speak"

In the next decade, the world has high expectations for the automotive industry. The improvement of urban infrastructure, the Internet of Vehicles and electrification, and the realization of autonomous vehicle are completely changing the way people use and interact with cars.

In its 130 year history, automobiles have undergone multiple transformations. One of the most fascinating areas is innovation in automotive lighting, as it is not just the "eyes" of a vehicle, but sometimes even determines its core characteristics such as personality and recognition.

But nowadays, despite the continuous emergence of forward thinking in the automotive industry, many practitioners believe that the "golden age" of automotive lighting innovation has passed. Some people even believe that "car headlights are becoming boring". With the trend of intelligence, the addition of intelligent driving functions such as ADAS, known as "black technology", and a series of intelligent software, the development of car lights has been somewhat overshadowed, and people are no longer paying too much attention to the development of car lights.

In fact, car lights have been closely following the development of the lighting technology industry. By using flexible and efficient LEDs to replace traditional light sources such as halogen bulbs, and adopting adaptive headlight systems that can adjust lighting modes according to environmental conditions and provide anti glare functions, these two have become the mainstream development directions of the current automotive lighting industry.

Recently, a new lighting technology is rapidly developing - digital projection lighting technology. It has brought car lighting into a new round of interactive technology revolution.

A “talking” light

Simply put, digital projection lighting technology turns each headlight into a high-definition projector. It can provide better lighting effects, finer area resolution, and display additional driver guidance information. This technology not only endows the lighting system with new functions, but also enables the headlights to have good interaction with people inside and outside the vehicle.

On top of the basic anti glare function, high-resolution lighting introduces new features for assisted driving. For example, when a vehicle passes through a construction road section, it can display the width of the vehicle and inform the driver of the width size of the vehicle ahead. The car lights will display two lines of light on the ground, with a length equivalent to the width of the vehicle, helping the driver evaluate the driving route and passing space. If there is a risk of accidents in the driver's lane, the lights will also display an optical warning (arrow) on the road. For example, in the case of icy or snowy roads at night, insufficient braking distance, or speeding, warning messages will be directly projected in front of the vehicle. These warning messages are projected near the driver's line of sight to effectively remind the driver and avoid distractions caused by the reminder appearing in other locations. In night traffic tests, these projected warning messages are more easily detected by drivers compared to the same information displayed above their heads. In fact, these functions are automatically activated by vehicle sensors based on driving analysis.

Redefining "Automotive Lighting"

The determining factor is not limited to headlight technology, but the 'digital intelligence' behind it. Our goal is to achieve the best visual effects and maximum brightness without causing glare, in order to create an innovative feature that allows drivers to communicate with other road users without being affected by glare, thereby significantly improving the safety of nighttime driving. Gunter Fischer, head of body development and vehicle operating systems at Daimler, stated.

Of course, achieving eye-catching demonstrations is not difficult, but more importantly, whether this projection system with a micro mirror matrix can adapt to the mass production mode of the automotive industry. All system components must comply with mechanical, electronic, chemical, thermal, and optical standards in the automotive field, and meet the requirements of automotive design. Close cooperation among all parties in the industry chain, from developers of microelectronic components to lighting system developers and automobile manufacturers, is a necessary condition for achieving large-scale production.

With the testing of new lighting technologies, laser headlights are being developed, Further implementation of new use cases for LED headlights and OLED. Projection headlights may be the next increasingly popular headlight technology, although there are many uncertain factors at present, the design of interaction between passengers and drivers and cars in the future will open a new window of opportunity for car lighting.

People may even want to know what new role lights will play in the future autonomous vehicle?