As we publish, 120 lighting experts from 50 companies are today working together near Detroit, Michigan. It’s the first Driving Vision News workshop held in North America, focused on how and when LED technology will impact the US automotive market.
Attendees represent ten automakers, 15 Tier-1 lighting suppliers, and 21 Tier-2 lighting suppliers. The roll call includes GM, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Hyundai, Audi. Opel, and Volkswagen; ACH, Automotive lighting, Grote, Hella, Koito, Magna, NAL, Odelo, Sealink, SL Corp, Speaker, Stanley, Valeo, Valeo-Sylvania, and Visteon; 3M, AML, Astron-Fiamm, Bayer, Brandenburg, CCI, DBM reflex, Docter Optics, Freudenberg, GXC, Magwerksled, Mitsubishi Electric, Myotek, Mobileye, Nichia, Osram, Philips, Sabic, Sylvania, Sonceboz, and Zollner.
We are pleased to welcome the two main universities involved in automotive lighting in North America: The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) and the Lighting Research Center of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (LRC). We are also proud to include the 3 organisations which regulate automotive lighting worldwide: NHTSA, GRE, and GTB.
All of us are now working to:
• Catch the trends concerning automotive LEDs in the forthcoming 10 years in terms of technology and technique, market penetration depth and width, lighting performance, regulations, and thermal efficiency;
• Outline the strengths and weaknesses of LED vehicle lighting: safety, environment, durability, obsolescence, standardisation, regulations.
• Exchange our experience, desires, and ideas among American, Japanese, Korean, and European participants on LED technologies for automotive lighting.
I would like to thank all the worldwide attendees and particularly Jerry Dittrich, David Hulick, Dirk Vanderhaeghen, Wolfgang Huhn, Rainer Neumann, Mike Larsen, Mahendra Dassanayake, John Orisich, Michael Hamm, Michael Flannagan, John Bullough, Ingolf Schneider, Kamislav Fadel, Thorsten Warwel, and Dennis Novack to have accepted to make a speech or to chair a round table.
All of us on the DVN team are privileged to produce this to contribute to the progress of LED technologies in the automotive market.
More information will be published in next week’s news, and watch for a full report on the workshop and resultant feedback, coming March 6.
Sincerely yours
DVN General editor