In my last editorial, I emphasised the lack of communication on automotive lighting and the resulting decrease of users’ interest for this matter. One possible lever to increase interest could be the assessment of lighting performances.
At DVN 2010 workshop in May in Paris, Michael Hamm presented an interesting lecture on the status of different assessments:
– from journalists and mainly Autobild in Germany and Consumer Report in North America with 5 simple rating scales: Excellent – Very Good – Good – Fair – Poor
– from EuroNcap initiative with unbelievable criteria not all understandable after around twenty meetings of plenty of experts..
At this workshop, many of us quoted the EuroNcap assessment method as “too long and complicated” and suggested to work on a simpler assessment approach. Some experts are working in this direction, using a basic but rigorous approach, and DVN is totally open and available to work with them and to communicate on their work.
The resulting performance assessment method, once adopted by our industry, could be a good lever to communicate and to advertise on lighting.
To succeed, we have to inspire ourselves with the simplicity of the rating scale of journalists. In our opinion, journalists’ assessment on car lighting always lacks rigor but it is simple and understandable by the user. Car makers react to these assessments and consider them as important because they impregnate drivers’ minds and purchasing decisions.
Action is needed in this direction. More information will be presented in next newsletters. Meanwhile, what are your ideas? We’re listening!
Sincerely yours