Shift Magazine - April 2020 - 16

LIGHTING THE WAY
Osram LEDs offer safety, customization
BY WHITNEY McDONALD

ED lighting offers a new way to communicate with passengers and pedestrians in and around vehicles.
The Osire Intelligent Platform is one of the latest innovations from Germany's Osram Opto Semiconductors, a global
leader in automotive lighting technology. Osire offers customizable lighting experiences that can be used to promote safety and
wellness for passengers and pedestrians.
"There is potential for a lot of opportunity with this device,"
Osram director Michael Godwin said.
In a demo for Shift, Osram showed how LED lighting
can send messages to pedestrians or welcome
passengers into the vehicle. In the demo,
the LED lights were embedded in a
door panel, which displays words
or names. This technology could be
used for transportation networks
such as Uber or Lyft.
Osram is also exploring the benefits
of using LED lighting for driver monitoring.
This builds off the technology first developed by Osram in a partnership with Joyson Safety
Systems that uses infrared lighting to monitor the alertness of drivers of semiautonomous cars.
Osram says Osire can provide a fast warning about the driver's cognitive state, enabling the driver to respond quickly.

shift * april 2020

Interior ambient lighting is another potential application. For
instance, passengers could customize their LED experience by
allowing the lights to adjust according to their mood or even to
the music playing.
"LEDS are ideal because they can efficiently mimic sunlight
and create vibrant colors to improve overall health and productivity," Osram spokeswoman Sarah Carlson said.
Beyond today's cars, Osram envisions using
Osire technology to create more personalized,
"human-centric" interiors for automated vehicles. "With the advent of autonomous
driving, the interiors of vehicles will
be more than simply a cabin; they
will be true living spaces in which
we will work, play and relax," Osram
said in a January release.
The company says LEDs can warn passengers in an autonomous car that the vehicle
is about to make a turn or hit the brakes. The company demonstrated the concept using an LED lightboard
that displays messages and signals.
Outside the vehicle, the LEDs can alert pedestrians when a
vehicle is in an autonomous mode by lighting up the exterior of
the car in a universal color that indicates self-driving.
"We see the future," Godwin said. n

Shift Magazine - April 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Shift Magazine - April 2020