The End of Lighting as We Know It?

The past two decades have probably been the most innovative years in the history of the automotive industry. The speed at which the spotlight has moved from downsized IC engines to PHEVs and onto full EVs and fully self-driving cars is absolutely astounding, and every time we look at these advances and try and imagine what the future might look like we enter the world of science fiction – except that nothing is impossible anymore.

Take lighting as an example: In the short space of twenty years, we’ve gone from incandescent to LED, to laser and smart “Bend lighting” LED headlamps. And if that’s not enough, interior and rear lighting has seen the onset of interior LEDs and smart instrument clusters with HUD, and soon OLEDs for exterior “information systems.”

Already several manufacturers are integrating the cameras used in ADAS and self-driving technologies for Adaptive Driving Beam to make sure the light does its job of illuminating the road without dazzling oncoming traffic.

But maybe, just maybe, automotive lighting as we have come to know it is rapidly drawing to an end! The fully self-driving car may write the final chapter in lighting technologies that have played such an important part in our love affair with the car.

According to a report on “The Future of Automotive Lighting” published by Driving Vision News in September 2016, the arrival of autonomous vehicles will herald in several significant changes in how lighting will be applied to these cars:

Lighting will primarily become “comfortable light,” illuminating the environment and relaxing the passengers Special light identification to be clearly seen by others Interior lighting with new light sources and materials. [inlinead]

BMW takes a look at the MINI in the next 100 years

In November 2016 BMW gave the world a sneak preview of what cars might look like in 2116 when they revealed the MINI VISION NEXT 100 at the Motorrad NEXT 100 event in Los Angeles.

As can be expected this futuristic MINI concept car is designed to meet the needs of the new world order in the 22nd century with the obligatory car sharing and autonomous driving features, but also the human factor hasn’t been ignored - personalized experiences include changing colors to match the passengers mood and augmented reality that allows the driver to control the car through a hologram.

Adrian van Hooydonk, Senior Vice President BMW Group Design, describes MINI’s vision for the future as “Experience sharing,” where users become part of a MINI community.

In achieving this shared community the design team’s primary challenge was to make the MINI widely and instantly adaptable – making the driver feel as if the car is tailored precisely to their own taste?

To achieve this vision, the MINI VISION NEXT 100 is wrapped in a discreet, silver skin. The MINI designers refer to it as a “blank canvas”. How that canvas is used varies according to the individual user, their mood and the situations they encounter. Even the color of the roof and the lighting mood in the interior respond in kind.

The MINI uses projections adapted to the driver in terms of color, graphics and content to create a personalized experience and customized package of onboard information.

For instance, the Cooperizer is the name the MINI VISION NEXT 100 gives to the centrally positioned circular instrument that has become such a signature feature of MINI cockpits. In the MINI VISION NEXT 100 it illuminates like a kaleidoscope. The colors and patterns it generates symbolize the car’s multi-faceted digital intelligence, which allows it to select a personalized setting for each driver, encompassing lighting, entertainment, communications, and autonomous-driving options.

The freedom of experience-oriented lighting

If this sounds a little far-fetched, the ISELED alliance is already developing a lighting concept that significantly enhances the design freedom that experience-oriented ambient lighting allows.

The alliance includes Inova Semiconductor (who invented the APIX protocol family for in-car display connectivity), Dominant Opto Technologies (a LED manufacturer with focus on automotive lighting), NXP, TE Connectivity and the University of Pforzheim.

Following intensive research the team has produced a string of multiple RGB LEDs (theoretically, up to 4096 triplets would be possible, but the group expects that in reality, some 10 to 30 LEDs will be implemented) which can be addressed and controlled individually through a simple two-wire connection running a high-speed control protocol. As the control element, the system uses an ARM-based microcontroller from NXP.

Color and brightness of each LED can be regulated individually. The LEDs are integrated with a relatively simple individual logic device that also stores the specific calibration data of the particular LED – this way the system can compensate for variations, doing away with binning, explains Tek Beng Low, Senior Vice President of Dominant Opto Technologies. “All LEDs have absolutely the same color and brightness,” Low says. The chip also contains three constant current sources – one each for the red, green and blue LEDs as well as a temperature sensor and the interface circuitry necessary.

This chip and the LED is packaged in a volume of only 2,8 x 4,1 x 0,65 millimeters and offers diagnosis capability as well as meeting the requirements of ISO 26262 – this is necessary because of the link to ADAS systems, explains Inova CEO Robert Kraus. At the same time, the concept can be used to support technical functions like hazard warnings from an ADAS.

Notwithstanding the impressive work already carried out in customizing vehicles through the use of lighting, the 22nd Century’s self-driving car presents an opportunity for even more radical change.

What if…?

Autonomous technology is likely to lean very heavily on LiDAR and radar, which do not need visible light to navigate their way or “see” obstacles in their path: So does the car of the future really need driving-lights, or even tail and brake lights? After all, these were only there to make driving safe for fallible humans.

So if cars are going to be connected to each other and the infrastructure why not take out these systems completely and replace them with “information-lighting”?

A vehicle available for ride-sharing could be bathed in a blue haze, indicating its availability; or this color could change to orange, indicating it’s a ride-share vehicle, but is currently occupied.

What about vehicles changing color to indicate the vehicle’s speed to other road-users and pedestrians in the immediate vicinity? This could be most useful to assist pedestrians and cyclists in judging safe time and distances of approaching traffic.

And emergency vehicles, such as EMS and law enforcement could have standardized lighting to indicate the type of service and status, such as an EMS vehicle with or without a patient.

Furthermore, with lighting no longer critical for humans to navigate in the dark, there’s also an opportunity to improve the quality of life and reduce (light) pollution.

Lighting that soothes our prehistoric psyche

Artificial lighting has only been around for a couple of hundred years, and before that, people spent their evenings in darkness. Now, in much of the world, the sky at night glows orange rather than black, with the stars replaced by millions of tiny squares of blue light in the hands of the people below.

This way of life is knocking our body's biological clock out of sync.

Different colors of light have different effects on our body. Blue wavelengths boost attention, reading times and mood in the daytime - but are disruptive to our sleep at night.

Multiple studies have linked light exposure at night to different types of cancer, diabetes, heart disease and obesity. It's not clear exactly what mechanism is causing that damage, but we know that exposure to light suppresses the secretion of melatonin, and some preliminary experimental evidence indicates that lower melatonin levels are associated with cancer.

Already other industries are working on solutions. F.lux has long offered software that adapts the color of a computer's display to the time of day, and last year Apple added a feature called Night Shift to iOS that does pretty much the same thing.

So although the focus of lighting may change from aiming high intensity driving lights to softer ambiance lighting there’s no doubt that lighting will remain a major differentiator of brands, and with the acquisition of new technologies it’s likely to be even more integrated into the vehicle’s DNA.

You might also like the following articles:

Innovations in Interior Lighting Design The Future for LED and OLED Automotive Lighting

Sources:

Gilbert Shar; Auto Connected Car News; MINI concept takes connected car to autonomous & shared mobility; November 2016; http://www.autoconnectedcar.com/2016/11/mini-concept-takes-connected-car-to-autonomous-shared-mobility/ Driving Vision News; Report on The Future of Automotive Lighting; September 2016; http://www.drivingvisionnews.com/reports/technical-survey-and-regulations/8017-the-future-of-automotive-lighting Christoph Hammerschmidt; EETimes; Innovative LED string concept facilitates ambient lighting designs; November 2016; http://www.electronics-eetimes.com/news/led-string-concept-facilitates-ambient-lighting-designs