In the last 30 years, vehicle and lamp designs have dramatically changed—and that’s in large part thanks to light source innovations. From halogen to LED, lamp design has transformed car exterior design. Look at the Lotus Therory 1 pictured here, and the Lynk & Co 02 covered in this DVNewsletter as examples.
And it’s not just design. Performance and visibility by night have dramatically improved; no longer is the choice between small headlamps that don’t work well or large headlamps that do.
The origin of this revolution is innovation, especially from tier-2 light source and semiconductor manufacturers who develop and make diodes, including LEDs and lasers. Volkswagen are presenting this week their new Tayron with microLED technology—a great example of tier-2s’ diode and semiconductor innovations, applied!
Needless to say, LEDs are now the predominant technology, having replaced most competing light sources in most applications. And laser-diode based lighting is emerging for special applications.
In this week’s DVNewsletter we bring you our exclusive interviews with Nichia President and CEO Hiroyoshi Ogawan; with Lotus’ head of exterior design, and with Kyocera SLD. We are also publishing the Nichia company profile written with the support of DVN Senior Adviser Jean-Paul Ravier, with the helpful coöperation of Nichia teams from Germany and Japan.
Very regrettably, we also bring you sad news; one of the vehicle lighting community’s great experts— Olaf Schmidt—has passed away.
Onward through the night brightly,
