The LED lighting revolution continues, and Volkswagen has some pretty cool stuff coming our way both for headlights and taillights. The crux of these new systems is that they can do more than just illuminate the way forward and alert drivers behind; there’s a higher level of communication capability to help both the person behind the wheel and other drivers on the road to navigate safely. We’ll talk more about this in a bit, but right now we have something else burning in our brains – are we actually getting a first look at the backside of VW’s next-generation Golf?
Update:
Take a good look at the photo above. We spent a fair amount of time trying to match up this taillight design with VW’s current lineup and we’ve got nothing. There doesn’t seem to be anything in the company’s recent past that matches either, and we doubt an old car would be used for such purposes anyway. The photo gallery at the bottom of the page features a couple Tiguan SUVs and a rendered concept, but none match the light design and visible body lines of the above photo. It doesn’t match any concepts we’ve seen either. In fact, it doesn’t match anything from VW. It does, however, look pretty darned close to the current Golf and a new model is coming for 2020. Here's a comparison with the Golf GTI TCR Concept.
Update:
Is this some pretty hefty speculation? Possibly, but it’s not uncommon for automakers to drop teasers in broad daylight, mixed in with regular news. Sure, there could be something we’ve missed, but this could also be a sneak peek at the next Golf – done intentionally or by mistake.
Whatever the vehicle is, it will wear VW’s next-generation interactive LED headlight and taillights. What does interactive mean? In short, micro-pixel headlights will have up to 30,000 light points and high-output LED beams that light up the darkness but can also project info and designs onto the road itself, such as solid lines to show the exact width of the vehicle, or help outline a curve that could be hard to see.
On the other side, LED taillights can communicate certain situations to other drivers behind the car, such as an approaching traffic jam. The lights can also project lines on the road during parking maneuvers, to let other cars and pedestrians know precisely where the car is going. This would all function in conjunction with autonomous systems and vehicle-to-vehicle / vehicle-to-infrastructure communications, as well as through manual control by the driver.
VW doesn’t say when this might come to production vehicles but development is ongoing at the company’s Wolfsburg plant, where there may also be a next-generation Golf being used for photos.
Source: Volkswagen
Gallery: VW Interactive LED Lights
Interactive headlights and tail light clusters help to raise the bar for safety in future
Innovative Volkswagen lighting technology is helping to boost safety. At the same time, it is also opening the door to increasingly personalised vehicle design. At an international workshop, Volkswagen is now showcasing how the lighting systems of the future will communicate and increase safety even further.
Volkswagen’s engineers and designers use all of the technology available to them to improve safety with innovative lighting technology. One of their goals is to enhance the lighting functions in current vehicles and, as a result, improve road safety in the present day. This development work has culminated in the IQ. Light matrix LED headlights in the new Touareg, for example, which improve comfort and safety when driving at night. However, lighting designers and engineers have an eye on the future, too. The assisted driving cars of tomorrow will confront road users with new everyday situations – such as a lack of eye contact with drivers.
This is where new, interactive lighting functions come into play. The new lighting systems will include micro-pixel HD headlights with up to 30,000 light points and high-performance LED headlights as a low-cost alternative to cost-intensive laser light. For the first time, these micro-pixel HD headlights will project information directly onto the road, further improving safety.
This technology also enables new assist systems such as “Optical Lane Assist” to be brought to life. In this system, the headlights project lanes in front of the Touareg, giving the driver precise information about the width of the SUV (including trailer) and the distance to the road lane markings, for example at road works. The lanes also follow the radii of curves. Such useful and safety-enhancing lighting functions are being tested with the HD-LCD headlights.
Interactive tail light clusters for added safety
New systems such as the matrix tail light cluster will also revolutionise tail lights. Matrix tail light clusters will allow warnings to be incorporated into the tail lights, for example, enabling dangerous situations, like the area at the end of a traffic jam, to be defused using car-to-car communication. New assist functions, such as the micro-lens-based “Optical Park Assist” system, will improve safety while manoeuvring. This system will be able to project the vehicle’s path onto the road to alert passers-by to the parking process.
In-house Volkswagen light tunnel reduces development times
To make sure it is suitably prepared for the challenges of the future, Volkswagen has opened its own centre of lighting excellence at the Wolfsburg plant. A 100 metre long, 15 metre wide and 5 metre high light tunnel has been in operation there since then in the heart of the Volkswagen world: its Research & Development division. In this tunnel, Volkswagen is using road simulations to test its lighting systems for today, tomorrow and beyond using road simulations. The tests can be reproduced and repeated. As a result, systems can be compared and evaluated in a light tunnel better than ever before. The centre of lighting excellence is also an ideal place to investigate how drivers and pedestrians perceive light. The light tunnel has also reduced the development time for new headlight, tail light and interior lighting systems, as the number of time-consuming night drives can now be reduced. Progress in light development can thus be implemented even more quickly into series production technology – increasing safety for the benefit of all road users.