This week we’re pleased to release our new report about automotive lighting regulations round the world. Our ambition is to show that now more than ever, regulations are not an esoteric matter reserved only for specialists, but should be regarded and addressed by all of us as a strategic concern. Our report discusses in detail the two main systems—the UN and the US—as well as interesting lesser-known systems, their structure and function, and their philosophical underpinnings and implications. We cover the recent GRE decision to start forward on a two-stage simplification of the UN lighting and signalling regulations, we describe the salient and less-than-obvious points of the various regulatory regimes, and we present the latest thinking on performance-based regulations aimed at minimising regulatory barriers to technical and technological innovation. These, keeping in mind present-day safety needs and future autonomous-car exigencies, are some of the points to be discussed in detail at the DVN US Workshop next January 10-11 near Detroit.
You’ve probably noticed there’s been a great deal of buzz and rabble in response to the second round of IIHS headlamp tests, including in the New York Times. And renowned RPI LRC vehicle lighting researcher John Bullough has had a very interesting analysis published, in which he looks at what happens to the IIHS headlamp rating results if the headlamps are aimed correctly rather than being tested in as-received condition. Closer to home, last week’s editorial and in-depth report by DVN’s Daniel Stern generated a lot of vociferous and valid feedback, much of which doesn’t agree with Stern. What I retain from all the feedback is the pressing need to find optimised conditions for ratings clearly related to safety, involving universities, institutes and experts.
There are reasons why those pieces were written as they were—keep reading DVN for the ongoing conversation, and please keep sending us your feedback. These are important matters at hand, and we know (not least because the regulators have come right out and told us) that things go better and faster when we speak with a united, informed, level-headed voice.
Sincerely yours
DVN Editor in Chief