I
remember, after the 2008 crisis, the first DVN workshop in Stuttgart when 18 experts and managers (most of them are still in our
lighting community) talked and listened with one another on the theme “In today’s
crisis situation, how can lighting suppliers work differently with car makers
to develop innovations in technologies and cost reduction?”.
I remember the various visionary proposals we defined together: cornering lights, automatic high beam which opened the door
to ADB, the strong styling effect of LED DRLs, the lack of styling expansion
with HIDs because they had the same design appearance as halogen lamps, the too
complicated regulations, the great future of LEDs in main functions, the likely
great future of modules, the need to pursue technologies selectively, and so
on. Many of these are coming to be realised, or already have.
Today,
with Coronavirus, we are in another kind of crisis. We’re in a difficult time of
constraints on all kinds of normal activity—including R&D—with social
distancing, travel bans, cancelled conferences, and working at home. It seems
like nothing but a nuisance, but think of the opportunities presented by a
disruption in routine. We have a break from our usual thinking in terms of daily,
weely, and monthly actions and targets; we have a chance here to take a step back and think about our work
in new ways and how to make the right choices.
It is an opportunity to take time to answer the questions of how best to focus
investments, how to optimise our work and our job with small improvments, how
to talk with our colleagues to better involve them in their jobs, how to train
young engineers, and how to best make use of DVN—the Newsletters, Reports, and website.
It’s a good opportunity to send us your thoughts and feedback so we can continue making DVN work for you!
Meanwhile, we’re working to bring you great things. This week we’ve got a
provocative article by Daniel Stern, DVN’s Chief Editor
based in Canada, with a different idea for how to fix the American regulatory
log jam. From next week, we’ll bring you
the saga of The Wonderful story of Lighting, written by Jean-Paul
Ravier, previous Research director at Valeo and presented with more than 100
slides.
Stay healthy, look after yourselves and your family, associates, and friends. Keep your hands washed. We’ll get through this together!
Sincerely yours