Tomorrow's Chapter丨Leading a new wave in the automotive and mobility fields

The automotive industry is undergoing a profound transformation, covering electrification, connectivity, assisted driving and autonomous driving. Gerald, how do optical semiconductors play an important role in this?

As a trusted partner of the automotive industry, we have been deeply involved in this field for more than 100 years, witnessing and leading the trend of automotive technology innovation. Today, the entire industry has ushered in the most disruptive technological change.

In the past, the engine, chassis and driving experience were the primary considerations for drivers. However, as cars continue to transform towards electrification, automation, connectivity and sharing, users and drivers pay more attention to and pursue the overall travel experience, such as safety and comfort, connectivity and entertainment, and deep interaction with the vehicle.

Optical solutions will play a leading role in the realization of this new mobility concept.

Can you provide us with relevant cases?

For many years, traditional optical technology has played a key role in automotive headlights, brake and turn signals, and interior lighting. After the popularization of LED technology, LED light sources have replaced most traditional optical technologies.

In addition, we also found that more and more optical products that support intelligent lighting and visualization functions, such as high-pixel matrix headlights, ambient lighting, C2X communication, and display backlights, have been successfully used in contemporary or next-generation cars.

Many new technologies have also emerged in the field of sensing, such as in-cabin sensing and driver monitoring technologies developed in response to regulatory requirements, lidar sensing technology used in autonomous driving functions, and smart surface technology that turns cars into a "third living space". These technologies are very promising and will drive industry growth.

Leveraging our global leadership in automotive lighting and our strong sensing portfolio, ams OSRAM offers a range of light emitters and sensing solutions for these applications.

What does this trend mean for automotive exterior lighting?

A key trend is dynamic forward lighting, i.e. pixelated intelligent headlights that consist of multiple light points. These adaptive headlights are becoming increasingly sophisticated, adapting to oncoming vehicles and traffic signs, and even projecting information on the road.

To solve the glare problem, high-pixel LED headlights automatically turn off pixels that may interfere with the vision of drivers of oncoming vehicles. The more pixels there are, the more precise the light beam can be adjusted. Our EVIYOS technology increases the number of pixels from the current dozens to about 26,000, which not only greatly improves the performance of adaptive headlights, but also can project warning signs on the road.

You mentioned smart surfaces, what do you mean?

Today, automakers want car interiors to have more complex functional designs. Clean cockpits, smooth surfaces, and intuitive controls are the mainstream design trends. Traditional physical buttons and knobs are gradually becoming outdated. Due to geometric limitations such as device space size/shape, the position of the in-vehicle display is limited and is easily affected by light reflection.

To meet this demand, a new human-vehicle interaction interface, the smart surface, has emerged. The smart surface integrates light sources, drivers, and sensors to enable a completely new way of interaction inside the car. For example, decorative interactive backlighting animations and Shytech buttons will only appear when the user looks at them or approaches them. This technology will completely change the way people interact with cars throughout the interior of the car, including the center console, roof console, doors, and even the steering wheel.

Will these new features affect the range of electric vehicles?

It is true that power is needed to realize functions, and the industry is in the midst of a heated debate about the trade-off between functionality and power consumption. Our semiconductor solutions are becoming increasingly energy efficient, helping to save energy and reduce consumption. For example, our latest LED daytime running lights consume 33% less power and provide significantly more light than the six-year-old version.

Ultimately, it’s a matter of finding the best compromise between automakers and car buyers. In particular, lighting and sensing technologies are becoming increasingly important as a differentiating factor for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

What will cars of the future look like?

The car of the future will evolve into the "third living space" with a new interior design, including new ways of interaction. Imagine windows as interactive screens, with excellent performance mircoLED displays, customized ambient light scenes, innovative projection technology, interactive touch surfaces, gestures and voice control.

In addition to meeting travel needs, cars will be able to provide more functional features, and optical solutions will play a leading role in the realization of this function.