Audi’s Q6 e-tron prototype features headlamps and rear lights sets headlights that will have an active digital signature, which customers will be able to select and communicate intelligently with other road users, increasing safety.
The German manufacturer believes that its second-generation digital OLED rear lights will ‘permanently change automotive light design and car-to-X communication” and take taking “light design, range of functions, and road safety to a new level”.
Audi is gradually developing the technology into intelligent displays that can communicate with other road users by displaying information via the exterior lights, which it calls the communication lights.
The active digital light signature is another world first making its debut in the Audi Q6 e-tron. It makes an entirely new and vibrant impression, pointing the way to the future of Audi lighting technology.
For the first time, customers can optionally select digital light signatures for this new evolution of digital daytime running lights in the Matrix LED headlights and the new generation of digital OLED rear lights. In addition, customers can book digital light signatures on demand.
There are a total of eight optional digital light signatures in the redesigned daytime running lights, and users can control them via the MMI (Multi Media Interface) and, for the first time, via the myAudi app.
César Muntada, Head of Lighting Design, said: “The Audi Q6 e-tron marks the first time in a production model that we are designing both the shape of the lights and their entire movement. Thanks to a perfect symbiosis between lighting design and the new technology, the new Audi Q6 e-tron lights look more vibrant and intelligent than ever before. We’ve given the light signatures their own personality and the digital world its own aesthetics at the same time.
A software module in one of the Audi Q6 e-tron’s domain computers, jointly developed by Audi and the Group’s software company CARIAD, makes this type of light signature possible. In the case of the second-generation digital OLED rear lights, the six 360-segment OLED panels generate a new image every ten milliseconds using a specially developed algorithm.
For the first time, the digital OLED rear lights can specifically communicate with the immediate environment (car-to-X communication). The number of segments per digital OLED panel has increased from six to 60 compared to the first generation. The Q6 e-tron’s rear lights comprises six OLED panels with 360 segments in total.
Audi is also innovating the front of the car. The next generation of digital daytime running lights and the light modules are now visually separate, creating greater design clarity. The designers have designed the individual LEDs – 70 in total – in this new evolution of digital daytime running lights as transparent 3D objects.
If you want even more customisation, you can book the package of digital light signatures for the LED headlights plus/Matrix LED headlights and digital OLED rear lights after purchasing their car using on-demand functions.
