This report is written primarily for automotive lighting and Driver Assistance experts who were not present at ISAL 2013 or who may have missed important lectures there. In around 80 pages, we précis and analyse the main presentations. This year ISAL’s lectures, posters, booths and networking opportunities combined to make an exceptional congress on new technologies with emphasis on the unprecedented speed and proliferation of new and newly-mature technologies and techniques. Around 700 people attended.
In this report we describe and comment on more than half of the 65 presentations. They cover:
• LED which is now the technology of the present as well as the future. Many lectures showed the huge and anticipated progresses of this technology, the infinite possibilities in styling, and the arrival of more affordable Eco LED light sources with attractive energy consumption for the mass-market vehicle segments, all of these factors leading to a probable market prevalence much higher than expected a few year ago.
• ADB (Adaptive Driving Beam or Glare Free High Beam) with several lectures emphasising the great potential in the future and mainly two studies proving the great improvement of visibility distance without increasing discomfort glare or disability glare.
• Laser technology, not known 2 years ago, becoming a reality even if the cost is still very high and all the validations are not finished. A working prototype was shown and many lectures were focused on this technology. Particularly interesting seemed the smart combination of LEDs giving the width of light distribution on highways, and laser high beam for clearing the way at distances up to 600 metres at high speeds. Each technology should be used for what it does best.
• Sequential turn indicators as on the Audi’s A8 show the way for a new styling and safety(?) trend.
• OLED technology with 3 interesting lectures should reach production stage in 2016/2017.
The report closes with pictures of the ISAL 2013 lighting community gathering and exchanging ideas about automotive lighting.