Today we release our exclusive DVN report on the evolution and strategy of lighting at BMW. In preparing it, I met with Christian Amann and was amazed to see a manager so deeply involved and so enthusiastic about his job.
I was eager to learn more about BMW lighting innovations for two reasons: my relationship with former management of BMW lighting was quite poor and on their side, advertisement from BMW has been focusing these days on ConnectDrive as a guiding strategy, the subject of lighting being part of it.
What a pleasure to hear Christian speaking about his job, explaining what he is doing. I was impressed by his great vision of lighting, less than one year after he came to be in charge of BMW’s Lighting and Visibility department. Amann showed me an LED headlamp with light modules which—surprise!—are meant to be a glare-free high beam. His eyes shone as he was explaining the functions of the module to me. Fantastic! I created DVN with the hope to have the opportunity to face just such persons, and to bring a spotlight to their enthusiasm for our whole community.
To come back to the report, it explains how lighting is becoming a strong core competence at BMW. Examples are shown with LED headlamps and new functions in the 6 Series and 7 Series, as well as future lighting concepts (laser beams, anyone?), in context of BMW’s lighting past. Their strategy is examined in depth and details are provided on lighting engineering and the technologies used by BMW, including simulations. An important part of the report is dedicated the presentation of the systems used in the main car models of BMW, insisting on the last launched vehicles with recent LED and glare-free high beam technologies.
The report closes with the last BMW lectures given at ISAL and VISION and the last interviews of Christian Amann, Artur Russ, Anders Warming, and Martin Enders.
Do go through it, give it a read or two, and as always we’d love to have your feedback and suggestions. We strive for continual improvement in our mission to bring together the vehicle lighting and driver vision community for the betterment of us all and to advance the state of the art!
Sincerely yours
DVN Editor in Chief