It's been a very busy couple of months at DVN. We attended the Los Angeles auto show and we went to CES in Las Vegas—you'll soon have a full DVN Report on those events, with lots of sharp, detailed, annotated photos. We don't want to spoil all the surprises, but in the meantime, some broad takeaway thoughts:

• Digitalisation, integration, and fusion are three major, high-profile trends across vast swaths of the vehicle- and infrastructure ecosystem, but especially in lighting, vision, and driver assistance/automated driving. Formerly-discrete systems and components are melding and being assimilated into cohesive systems.
• Just as the lines are blurring between vehicles and drivers, so too the lines are blurring between vehicles and infrastructure. V2I, V2V, and V2X are not really the end goals, but the basic framework for what's yet to come.
• There are definite positive feedback loops at work: increased innovation in the lighting and vision fields open new prospects for previously impracticable or unthinkable use cases, which drive further innovation, and so on and on.
• New light styles are increasingly used as an emblem for new lifestyles. Here again, innovation unlocks previously unfeasible design possibilities, which spurs innovation in another positive feedback loop.
• A certain automotive styling element, long considered representative of a highly specific era, is showing beginning signs of a comeback—starting with the lights.

This week's in-depth gets into some of the lighting- and vision-related expressions of these trends.

Meanwhile, as you read this today the DVN US Workshop is starting in Rochester, near Detroit. We may be without representatives from NHTSA on account of the US Government being shut down (which also means an indefinite delay on rulemaking activities—such as the one on ADB), but we're nevertheless getting under way with a full docket of intriguing lectures and a wide range of products and services on display in the expo space. If you're joining in as a participant or attendee, terrific! If not, we'll be reporting the highlights in photos, words, and videos.
Onward and upward,

Daniel Stern, DVN Chief Editor