When we talk about the newest lighting technologies, drivers say they’ve heard the various words and names, but they aren’t clear on what they mean. And drivers won’t buy an expensive upgrade they don’t really understand. After my report on adaptive lighting, I receive feedback saying we have to do something to better sell these new technologies. That’s right. If we continue as we’ve done before and are doing now, the new lighting technology will die on the vine and our great strides in safety performance will remain theoretical. At the VISION congress, this point was well illustrated; each speaker used his or her company’s own terminology. I am sure that some experts did not always clearly understand what type of system was being discussed. The benefits of standard terminology will accrue not only in terms of take rates for new technology, but also for ease and speed of regulation which in turn will facilitate the on-road implementation of our newest and best systems and devices.
We must learn from our errors; Xenon took a decade to become well known largely because of the proliferation of different terms for the one technology: Xenon, HID, Litronic, and so forth. We’re making the same mistake with today’s newest lighting technologies. We must quickly and efficiently agree on clear, descriptive nomenclature for each function, and then we must stick to it. Companies will of course devise their own names for their various implementations, but we will all benefit if these are treated as brand names, used in conjunction with—not instead of—the agreed common name of a device or function. This way we will minimise the time needed for drivers and car buyers to learn about the various available technologies. And when they know what’s available, they’ll start to want what’s available. We need to coördinate quickly; new technology (and new names) arrives almost daily.
I ask car makers, and suppliers to share their thoughts on this point. Let’s work on some basic agreement in principle, then we can work to achieve an industry-standard nomenclature.