Another very useful feature is the navigation system-paired proactive Adaptive Headlight control system, which to illuminate corners even before the steering wheel is turned. Anyone driving down unfamiliar country roads at speed in the dark will undoubtedly welcome this feature.
Laserlight also adds a new dimension to BMW’s Night Vision system’s Dynamic Light Spot function. In pitch-dark conditions, people and animals can be detected from a distance of up to 100 meters by infrared camera and ‘spotlighted’ by the laser-based system.
As if that wasn’t enough, the M4 Concept Iconic Lights also showcases a further ‘visionary’ system called High Power Laser diodes. This system projects driver information directly onto the road in front of the vehicle, which allows drivers to literally keep their eyes on the road at all times.
Unlike ordinary LEDs, which are a point light source, the OLEDs at the rear are able to produce light uniformly over their entire surface. The OLED elements are very thin, with a thickness of just 1.4mm, and the individual modules can be activated separately, generating new possibilities for creating different lighting effects. This was a concept first seen on the Audi Swarm OLED Lighting Concept at the 2013 CES show.
In the past, rigorous legal requirements regulating the brightness of vehicle lighting have limited the number of lighting functions a company could implement using OLED technology. BMW’s overcome this hurdle by separating the lighting functions for different driving modes. A different-shaped light pattern can be used by activating only some of the OLED segments in Sport mode for example, which shows a narrow, focused and sharply defined ‘strip’ of light in the rear light clusters.
By implementing what the company calls ‘BMW Organic Light’ in the taillights and rear direction indicators the system is more environmentally friendly as well. The system’s OLEDs are an efficient, sustainable light source that reduces the vehicle’s CO2 emissions thanks to their low power consumption. No expensive rare earth metals are required in the production process either.
Laser and OLED lighting are one of the decades biggest innovations and something we’re likely to see trickle down out of the luxury segment and into more mainstream automobiles in the near future. The sheer benefit of both systems over conventional halogen, xenon and heat-inducing LEDs are clear (pardon the pun), and the cost associated with implementing such technology will certainly begin to decrease over time.
