i3 - July/August 2020 - 23

More, some automakers have already
incorporated ADAS sensors in lamp
assemblies. For years both Ford and FCA
have built radars for blind spot detection
systems into pickup truck and SUV tail
lamps, Audi has integrated radar sensors
with headlamps, and General Motors has
integrated two cameras into the center
stop lamp of its Chevy Silverado pickup
truck, Grant says.

CREATING AN EMOTIONAL
BOND WITH LIGHTING

Light can build an emotional connection
with a vehicle including dynamic "welcome
lighting" and "farewell lighting", which use
software to fade individual LEDs on and off
at different increments and create animation sequences. "Depending on what the
automaker wants customers to feel about
their vehicle, or brand as a whole," he
explains, some may convey a soft, organic
sensibility while others may seem more
technical. "Both are very effective at enhancing the emotional connection between the
customer and their vehicle," Grant adds.

2010
Electronically controlled adaptive driving beam all-LED headlamps, which
work with a camera and change the
beam pattern in response to oncoming vehicles featured in the Audi A7.

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For instance, Ford Motor Co.'s Lincoln brand features Embrace, which
activates when a key holder approaches the vehicle (welcome) or leaves (farewell). In welcome mode Embrace lights up the signature LED headlamp and
tail lamp elements and the running boards beneath the doors, projects a
Lincoln star logo on the ground beside the vehicle, and turns on ambient
lighting in the passenger cabin.
Embrace "plays into what we're seeing at CES but other shows, too -
more animation in the lights," says Todd Clark, chief engineer for lighting,
mechatronics and switches at Ford in Dearborn, MI. "The challenge is
delivering that technology that can wow the customer at a cost that is
affordable," Clark says. Ford is accomplishing this by standardizing the necessary electronics across the company's
entire product portfolio. He says, "The building blocks of
what we've set with Lincoln Embrace, we can scale up to
Innovative HD
other animation in the future."
headlamps from
Further in the future Clark foresees an Embrace-like
Mercedes-Benz
help keep
function targeting rideshare vehicles such as using a custom
pedestrians
light color on the outside to identify the rider's vehicle
safe.
(selected by the user in the service's app) or lighting up the
rider's seat in a selected color.
Another trend Ford has identified is the use of smart surfaces
that light up when appropriate but otherwise remain dark, and
these could include both interior and exterior trim pieces, and
hard or soft materials such as leather and wood. "We're pushing
this as far as the art of the possible," Clark says.
At least one automaker is studying lighting design outside
the industry for ideas on how to style car interiors. "We look
to architectural concepts - how they're using materials like
different plastics and glass, and laser etching," says Mike
Nicholas, chief designer of lighting, badging and under
hood design at FCA in Auburn Hills, MI. "We used to do
traditional graining of our lenses and bezels. Now with laser
etching you can actually design textures, and when the light
hits it, it has this dynamic effect."
Also, with the advent of driver and passenger monitoring systems, there's
a health and wellness application for car interior lighting, says Dominique
Massonie, head of innovation at Elektrobit, based in Erlangen, Germany.
He imagines, for example, automatically adjusting the cabin lighting to
help wake a sleepy driver at night.
Indeed, lighting - or more specifically photonics - is itself part and
parcel of car sensing, says Mike Godwin, director of automotive marketing
at Osram Opto Semiconductors Inc. in Novi, MI. It can be used for eye gaze
and emotion detection inside the passenger cabin. And then, reacting to
the findings, it can be adjusted to, for example, mitigate motion sickness.
"Everyone's looking for those right solutions," Godwin affirms. "The car
makers are looking for how are they going to differentiate their brand, and
differentiate the outer shell of the vehicle, plus the experience that is related
on the interior of the vehicle."

2014
Laser high beam headlamps
from Audi and BMW were
included in its R8 LMX race
car and i8 electric sports car
respectively.

2018
High-resolution projector type headlamp - named
Intelligent Digital Electronic Automotive Lighting or IDEAL
- with DLP (digital light processing) technology using
intelligent digital mirror devices (DMDs) developed by
Automotive Lighting for Mercedes-Benz's Maybach line.

JULY/AUGUST 2020

7/13/20 9:47 AM

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i3 - July/August 2020

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