Autonomous vehicles are coming fast and soon, and the whole lighting community must urgently work together to harmonise the specifications for AV-specific lights. It is now a certainty that lighting will be substantially important for the safe integration and operation of AVs in traffic, by informing and assisting other traffic participants—drivers and pedestrians and cyclists alike.
So a challenge arises, to define safety requirements and technical specifications for whole new kinds of car lights, so AVs can advertise their status and intent. For the first time, these new kinds of lights will have to be designed not only with human vision in mind, but also to meet the needs of cameras and other sensors for machine vision. A variety of studies are under way in Germany and France, in the US, and in Asia to narrow in on the theoretical aspects before moving on to field tests.

But consensus has not yet developed as to whether AVs should have to advertise themselves as such. At the GRE meeting last month, GTB proposed a task force to understand whether there is scientific evidence of a safety need for autonomous vehicles to signal their autonomous status and their intentions to other traffic participants. If so, GTB consider it essential to devise harmonised specifications that account for the needs and customs of Asia, Europe, and North America.
In this week's news, we bring you an article looking into the factors involved in the matter.
And we will surely discuss it in great depth at the DVN US Workshop next 15-16 January in Rochester, near Detroit. Four lectures on regulations are already confirmed from Davide Puglisi (GRE IWG-SLR Secretary), Bart Terburg (Chair of GTB Light Source Working Group), Romeo Samoy (Chair of SAE J3134 Automated Driving System Lamps Task Force), and Geoff Draper (GTB President).

I'm sorry we're not able to accept any more registrations for the DVN Lidar Conference, but the event is full right up; we expected 120 people, and now with 170 attendees confirmed, that's truly a capacity crowd.
If you missed out on registration for that event, please don't let it happen again at the DVN US Workshop; go ahead and sign up as soon as you can to make sure you get a seat. Forecasting based on an unbroken track record stretching back all the way to the first DVN Workshop, this next one—with a 2-hour regulation session, lectures from 8 automakers and 10 set makers, expo booths, and more—will be a highly fruitful opportunity to expand understanding and move forward on all the important issues and projects in the lighting and driver-assistance world.

Sincerely yours

DVN President