Audi's light digitization pioneers new trends in safety, design, and communication

MANILA: Audi prioritizes customer safety and satisfaction. The company with the four rings believes that these are integral aspects of the company's success. In that context, light technology is becoming increasingly significant, opening up a whole new range of possibilities and perspectives, from improved driver safety to external communication and personalization. All of this is made possible through systematic light digitization. The forward-looking Digital Matrix LED headlights and digital OLEO rear lights in the new Audi A8 take the customer experience to a higher level: light is fully digitized for the first time in any Audi model. The car's digital OLED rear lights allow for even more customization. The Digital Matrix LED headlights also come with three new functions: advanced traffic information, a lane light with direction indicator lights on highways, and an orientation light on country roads. Not only do these features showcase Audi's "Vorsprung durch Technik," but they also give value.

In a statement, Audi Board for Technical Development Member Oliver Hoffmann said, “Lighting technology and lighting design have been success factors for our brand for decades, becoming a key area for Audi. This has allowed us to continue setting new benchmarks in the automotive industry. The digitization of lighting enables us to offer completely new functions that we can use to increase safety again significantly. For example, in combining the digital OLED tail lights with proximity indication, we can communicate with the outside world depending on the situation. In addition, this taillight technology enables our customers to select their taillight signature via the MMI for the first time — something that is only available from Audi.”

The lane light with the orientation light is very useful in the dark of night. It illuminates the car's own lane, allowing the driver to concentrate on the road ahead. The lane light's integrated position marking — darkened arrows in a kind of "carpet of light" — predicts the Audi vehicle's position between the lane markers, ensuring safe driving in the middle of the lane. The lane light with the orientation light on the highway, with its focus on the car's own lane markers, assists, for example, in narrow lanes around construction sites: the illumination is deliberately limited to the car's lane and not the construction site's lanes in order to appropriately center the driver's focus on the road. This orientation light is now available separately from the lane light on country roads, which is a new feature now that the headlight has been digitized. This is the first new feature made available by digital light technology in additional driving conditions.

Back to the highway, the lane light flashes both lane markers vividly during lane changes, while the orientation light shows the car's exact position in the lane to provide the driver with the greatest assistance. That is where the second new feature kicks in: the lane light's direction indicator lights. The Digital Matrix LED headlights provide a dynamic blinking area on the appropriate side of the lane light when the blinkers are activated. The lane light thereby reinforces and amplifies the signal from the road ahead's direction indicator lights. This means that vehicles nearby will receive additional, clear information about the approaching lane change. Audi is doing its part to make driving safer for everyone on the road, especially in congested areas. When driving with low beams through curves, in cities, or on highways, and when driving with high beams, the even greater clarity that light digitization brings makes driving even safer for other road users because it allows for far more precise masking of approaching traffic and cars on the road ahead.

Although warnings about potential accidents or breakdowns are already provided as visuals through the MMI via data given by Here maps, the Digital Matrix LED headlights with DMD technology provide an additional level of assurance. The headlights now beam a warning indicator on the road in front of the car for around three seconds, in addition to a display in the digital instrument panel. The steering wheel projects a triangle with an exclamation point inside. This allows the driver to retain their eyes on the road and respond as quickly as possible in the case of an accident or breakdown in oncoming traffic.

The digitization of Matrix LED headlights is made possible by a new technology known as DMD, which stands for digital micromirror device. DMD was previously used in video projectors. A small chip with 1.3 million micromirrors with edges a few thousandths of a millimeter long is at its heart. Each of them may be tilted up to 5,000 times per second using electrostatic fields. The LED light is either focused onto the road through the lenses or dissipated for masking purposes, depending on the setting.

This means the light is no longer a static beam. Rather, it looks like a video image that is constantly regenerating.

In the dark, the marking light in the Digital Matrix LED headlights aids in recognizing pedestrians near the road. The night vision assistant identifies the scenario if they are in front of the car, and the marking light illuminates the individual with targeted lighting. The car becomes as safe as possible for everyone involved when that combination is used.

When moving in and out of the car, the expanded dynamic lighting scenarios demonstrate how closely light design and light technology are linked at Audi. Personal tastes are expressed through individual lighting effects. The MMI allows customers to choose from five different lighting effects. Thanks to DMD technology, the five different projections are available on demand.

In 2016, the OLEO in the Audi TT RS signaled the start of a new era in automotive light technology. Organic LEDs (OLEDs) were employed for the first time in tail lights. OLEO elements are semiconductor-based light surface sources with perfect uniformity and exceptional contrast. Their brightness can also be modified. The light source can also be freely adjusted and separated into precisely reconfigurable portions. The dynamic lighting scenario was also presented in the OLEO rear lights at the Audi TT RS debut.

After four years, Audi enhanced the OLEO through digitization in the Audi Q5, bringing the ability to change the taillight signature to the market for the first time. The reasons for this move were OLEDs' core characteristics: high contrast, segmentation capability, light homogeneity, and the smallest possible gaps between segments. Audi remains to be the only automaker to offer it, and it comes as standard on the A8 with digital OLEO rear lights.

Audi light design creates a unique set of digital OLEO rear light signatures for each Audi model. Only through digitization can rear lights be switched and hence the light design customized. In concrete terms, the bus system provides for individual control of each panel in the rear lights, as well as the OLEO segment within it. Personal preferences can then be implemented using the MMI. In the new Audi A8, drivers may pick from three different rear light signatures via the MMI. Customers who purchase an Audi 58 will get an additional, fourth signature.

The digital OLEO rear lights are using a proximity indication to draw other drivers' attention. When a vehicle approaches a parked Audi, the parking sensors detect the movement and activate all remaining OLEO segments, increasing the brightness and surface area of the vehicle to make its presence as obvious as possible. The digital OLEO rear lights return to the chosen signature as the Audi pulls away. This additional safety feature also applies to people riding bicycles and scooters, as the sensors detect them.

The Audi A6 e-tron concept car offers a glimpse into light-based gamification. Customers may play video games while the car is charging, thanks to the progressive Digital Matrix LED headlights, which project video games on the ground or a wall in front of the car. Games controlled by a personal mobile terminal device can be utilized in combination with car headlights, which serve as projectors for smartphone video games. Possibilities to expand the range of services accessible to clients are continuously being considered. This includes the possibility of incorporating future content from movie and game providers.

Aside from upgrading the Digital Matrix LED headlights, digital OLEO technology will shape the future by being more than just a standard light source. Its advancements point to exterior displays that are aimed to enhance communication with the outside world while also increasing safety and allowing for even greater personalization. Flexible digital OLEO rear lights, on the other hand, are a step ahead. They use a flexible substrate that lets them transition from a two-dimensional to a three-dimensional structure. This not only makes the form more defined, but it also allows for the integration of digital light design into the exterior of the lights, allowing for symbol displays for further communication with the outside world.

These types of safety-related features and customization options were and continue to be the result of strong coordination between light technology and light design.

“Those of us on the technology side work hand-in-hand with design in pre-development as well as with the relevant licensing authorities in the preliminary stages. At Audi, light means safety above all, which means seeing and being seen. With digitization, we have a lot more possibilities to make cars even safer,” Audi Lighting Development Head Stephan Berlitz stated.

“Light technology and light design are inseparable at Audi,” Audi Light Design Head Cesar Muntada said. “Light is a visible expression of 'Vorsprung durch Technik.' We give the car an unmistakable face and sharpen the character of the model and the brand. An Audi must be recognizable at night at the first glance, both from close up and from a distance, so we stick to a principle that guarantees recognition, but also leaves the space necessary for the character of the particular car.”

Audi ensures that their vehicle will be recognizable using the following principle: all Audi light signatures accentuate the car's width with unique, partitioned light elements and accents on the outside. These segments come together to create a single body. Audi's light designers set all of the light signatures and functions in motion, and design them to appear beautiful both on the car and in the projected digital image on the ground. Muntada said, “By repeating that principle, we ensure that an Audi is recognizable.”

Alongside raw personalization, another element that is highly plausible for the future is instant communication. The interactive design of digital OLEO rear lights will be implemented. For instance , an Audi will be aware of black ice on the road ahead, thanks to extensive networking. The car's rear lights will be able to alert cars behind it. It will be possible to change speed and distance sooner by being aware of the threat. As soon as legislators allow, it will also be possible to automatically modify the digital OLEO elements while driving, for instance, to instantly warn drivers behind the car of risky situations.

The subject of durability is one that is frequently asked regarding the technology in the digital OLEO rear lights. Audi's digital OLEDs are built to withstand the rigors of automotive use. Degeneration is slowed by a unique material development that influences temperature and encapsulation technology, prohibiting the OLEO elements from getting in touch with moisture. This implies that the OLEO elements have the same durability characteristics as standard inorganic automotive LEDs. Due to this, digital OLEDs have substantially longer service lives than conventional OLEO displays, and they do so with significantly higher light density to face the challenges of automotive exterior lighting.

The Mapping light, which is built into the roof edge spoiler, is another type of technology that improves safety and communication. The "quattro" emblem is projected onto the upper section of the rear window by a functional extension of the third brake light. Not only does this open up whole new design options for communication, but it also enhances the perception of the brake light function in traffic. Because the spoiler projection light only reflects backwards, it is only seen by drivers behind the car. The driver is completely unaware of the additional lighting effect. In the summer of 2022, this technology will be available in China in an SUV model with a combustion engine created exclusively for the Chinese market. Audi intends to use the projection light in the spoiler worldwide in order to provide more customization options in the future. However, customer-designed projections will not be allowed for legal reasons.

In many fields, communication is essential for success. Audi plans to use digital ground projections in the future to improve communication between the car and its surroundings. The blinker ground projections provide a first glimpse of this. Three symbols projected onto the street in the front and back notify bikers about lane changes or, more importantly, warn pedestrians about a turn — a feature that simplifies and improves communication while also ensuring safety.

This type of communication is meant to prepare the way for more expansive projections in the area surrounding the car, such as warnings projected onto the road before a door opens. Audi is gradually increasing its environmental lighting, but in the process, it is also establishing the proper scenario for its intended purpose in terms of functionality, in order to provide the best added value possible, rather than just presenting everything that is now viable. This is relevant in terms of both safety and personalization.

Audi's future vision for the latter includes customizable ground projections made possible through digitalization. Information and signatures relating to the driver are possible in this regard, but this should not jeopardize privacy.

Photos from Audi

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