Rainer Neumann had the lead and organisation responsibility.
Main speakers were: Michael Meyer-Ford, Thomas Feid-Opel, Wolfgang Huhn-Audi, Henning Kiel-VW , Karl Manz-Karlsruhe, Thomas Reiners-Osram, Josef Schug-Philips, Michael Kleinkes-Hella, Rainer Neumann-Visteon.
40 experts attended the symposium.
– Audi
They demonstrated their leading position in advanced lighting, both for front (LED Audi R8) and rear (Audi A6).
The various shapes of DRL were shown.
Trend is showing that Xenon will further develop in volume, only for luxury vehicles.
Audi see the replacement by LEDs in the mid Future.
With AFS , Audi are concentrating on the major functions, e.g. dynamic bending and motorway. The other features are not that effective at the moment.
With regards to CO2 discussion it is a need to replace in the future rear lamps with LED light sources, also DRL function.
For HID (Xenon) the requirement is to cancel the cleaning device as mandatory feature especially due to the weight increase and due to the relative weak effect on glare.
– Opel
They explained that they have been very successful with their strategy with their AFL system. This incorporates all kind of functions like motorway beam, dynamic and static bending, adverse weather light, town light and pedestrian zone light.
Also the change of the light between Europe and UK could be managed automatically with their new Insiginia car.
The success shows, that drivers having used AFL in Opel are ordering their next vehicle again with AFL.
– Ford
They are concentrating on the added value aspect, i.e. the customer has to have a clear advantage once he is spending extra money for a lighting feature.
Additionally, the extra money should be reasonable in comparison to the car price.
This is why Ford introduced first in the world the Halogen solution for Focus and now for Mondeo. The take rate is much higher than the corresponding HID solution.
For rear lights LED’s will come more and more, but it has to be done in a way, that the customer can notice it.
– VW
They are taking car on development aspects of lighting systems by themselves. They have developed internally a simulation process, being able to calculate reflector surfaces, calculation light distributions, temperature distributions and mechanical constraints. This helps in finding quickly good results with the supplier.
Also the simulation of the appearance of lighting products in light off and light on situation can be simulated.
– Philips and Osram
They stated that they are in development of the new LED front lighting light sources with dramatic increase in efficiency in the next years. This will enable the suppliers to offer competitive lighting solutions in front lighting to HID. The very high costs will still remain for a couple of years. The trend is clearly visible, that the modularization of the light sources will be the only way to come with comparable costs to HID , which will happen not before 2012 – 2015.
– Hella
They showed that beside the LED technology for front lighting the driver assisting systems will be coming more and more.
One of this is the automatic low beam / high beam and the future glare free headlamp with LED-arrays. Finally once the LED’s will be reasonable in price, we will see non-mechanical systems with AFS headlamps, where the relevant LED’s will be controlled and directed as a function of the needs in illumination the road ahead (which is known by GPS system).
– The legislation
They are currently happy to have solved the application of LED’s in front lighting systems. The next system will be the automatic High beam / low beam operation controlled by camera systems. The legislation of the intelligent variation of the modes between low and high beam is still open. Tell talesare necessary, question is the inclusion of bicycle drivers with their lights on and a definition of the various cut-off line realizations.
– Visteon
They added, that the front lighting with LEDs have not to wait until the costs are comparable to HID. The proposal in realizing affordable LED headlamps with high colour temperature and a light performance above the best halogen lamps is also an option, especially for the mid level cars. This would be a similar effect as with AFS Halogen in the past.
A recent survey in Germany demonstrates clearly, that all experts in lighting are working in the right direction by improving safety at night drive.
Of course, today an attractive styling of the lighting equipment is a need to catch interest. Normally, the usual driver is not very interested in the lights. But 90% of the drivers are satisfied or very satisfied with their lights. One third does not know what lights they have on their own vehicle!
The symposium was finished with a couple of targets for the different car manufacturers, depending on their segment where they are offering their vehicles. The next years will show the DRL feature as a mandatory feature, best solver with LED’s.
The take rate of HID could be raised, if the mandatory requirement of the cleaning system could be pushed away.
LED will be increasing in rear lights. In front lights it will take a couple of more years (10 years) where HID will further increase, before LED’s will be replaced by HID solutions.
The future light source with respect to the green car, CO2 discussion, is without doubt LED !!