Before the 1990s, the only real opportunities for vehicle lighting professionals to meet, greet, and exchange ideas were the SAE Congress and private meetings with regulators. I remember back then there was really no opportunity to talk with the lighting engineers and the lighting community as we know it today did not exist.
The initial step toward coalition was the first PAL (Progress in Automotive Lighting, later renamed ISAL) symposium in Germany, launched by Professor Schmidt-Clausen. The second decisive step was the launch of VISION Congresses in France. And the third step has clearly been the creation and evolution of Driving Vision News and the DVN Workshops held round the world.
Now, with all these events, lighting experts and managers, regulators and researchers, practitioners and designers and engineers from all over the world and all sectors of the industry have the opportunity to be informed about what’s going on in their field, to meet their colleagues, to ask questions, to add to their knowledge, to adjust their vision, to find new sources and resources, to come back with a broader view about new technologies and their impact on this industry. This was my first priority when building Driving Vision News.
This community we’ve built together is a real lever for progress. Not only because innovations and new developments are increasing at an ever-accelerating pace, but also because there is increasing convergence of ever more and more automotive functions and components which used to be independent from each other. Now they come together as polyvalent, integral systems—driver vision systems rather than discrete lighting, windshield clearing, and mirror systems, for example—using common parameters, sensors, actuators, and software platforms.
Together we can broaden our scope of interest and keep our eyes and minds open to the competitive advantages to be gained by increased community action to adapt to the rapidly-changing market. The next ISAL, this coming 29-30 September, will be a grand occasion for that purpose. Read more about it in this week’s in-depth report.
Sincerely yours
DVN Editor in Chief