xcel
12-21-2008, 11:39 PM
Audi’s vision is still expensive but is leading the way. (cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?p=175544)
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Audi_Sportback_LEDs.jpgWayne Gerdes – CleanMPG (cleanmpg.com) – Dec. 21, 2008
Audi A1 Sportback – This LED headlight design says “Dare me”
Ingolstadt – Light-emitting diode’s (LED’s) equal efficient, reliable and one-of-a-kind automobile lighting. Audi was the first manufacturer to recognize the potential of LED lighting technology and incorporate it into its production vehicles. In fact, many Audi models are recognizable at a glance thanks to LED daytime running lights (DRL’s). The new Audi R8 was designed entirely on the basis of energy efficient and environmentally friendly LED headlight technology.
A tiny dot on your finger, as minute as a grain of sand. Fortunately, this speck of material uses electrical energy to generate more white light than any conventional light source in the world. An LED is a semiconductor device –just a square millimeter in size – which boasts a remarkable physical property. It can convert electrical energy directly into light and is unbeatably efficient when it comes to energy consumption. Today’s xenon and LED headlights are four times more energy efficient than halogen headlights. It is estimated that by 2018, LED technology should be approximately eight times more efficient than a halogen light. In addition, LEDs practically indefinite service life makes for an intriguing reason to use them in future automobile designs.
Performance LED's as a light source for headlamps?
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Audi_A6_Headlights.jpghttp://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Audi_A6_Taillamps.jpg
LED DRL’s and Tail lamps of the Audi A6 Avant
The tiny light sources present designers with opportunities. Stefan Sielaff, Audi’s Head of Design, explains, “LEDs unlock the door to unrealized design possibilities for exterior design and interiors alike.” A number of LED’s can be combined to create various shapes to provide a distinctive visual appearance. The taillights of the Audi A6 Avant are likely the best-known example of any tail end. These LED’s in a ring-shaped array have become every bit as instantly recognizable as the sweeping LED DRL's at the front end of the Audi A4.
The Audi R8 constitutes Audi’s future lighting strategy and is available with the world’s first all-LED headlights. In addition to the DRL’s, the turn signals as well as low-beam and high-beam headlights are executed by means of LED’s.
“A lot of people initially viewed this development as a mere marketing gimmick. Yet everyone who has seen these lights in action is not only astonished by the excellent output, but also thrilled with the homogenous distribution of light and the agreeable, daylight-esque color of the light,” says Dr. Wolfgang Huhn, Head of the Light and Visibility Department at Audi.
Greater safety, higher fuel economy
LEDs are capable of reducing a vehicle’s fuel consumption. When DRL’s become mandatory in the European Union beginning May 2011, Audi models with LED technology will be ahead of the curve. Just one vehicle’s conventional low-beam headlights, taillights, and license-plate illumination consume approximately 200 watts – which the alternator must constantly generate. By comparison, a mere 15 watts is required to power the new Audi A4’s modern LED DRL's, which have the added advantage of far better visibility for other road users. All in all, that equates to a decrease of about .5 mpgUS and about 4 g/km fewer CO2 emissions. Thanks to this new technology, Audi models with LED DRL’s sold in 2008 alone will consume during their first year of use approximately 2.5 Million fewer gallons of fuel and emit approximately 25,000 fewer metric tons of CO2 vs. vehicles equipped with halogen based LED DRL’s.
The discovery of digital light
“One day, a supplier called to tell me that white LEDs with 18 lumens per watt would soon be on the market. Suffice to say, that immediately got my attention,” said Stephan Berlitz, Head of Lighting Technology and Electronics in Ingolstadt. Lumens per watt are the horsepower of light: They light up the eyes of light developers just as the words torque and power light up the eyes of engine experts. For the sake of comparison, an ordinary household light bulb generates about 20 to 25 lumens per watt. A modern passenger vehicle’s xenon headlights, on the other hand, are very energy-efficient and create some 80 lumens per watt.
Though the 18 lumens generated by the first LED headlights in the Audi Q7ish Pikes Peak concept are old news, they created quite a stir in those days. The next generation of white high-performance LEDs will hit the market next year with a whopping 100 lumens per watt, thus surpassing the efficiency of xenon lights for the first time. This can be traced back to dramatic developments. “LED’s are similar to computer chips. Every two years there’s an increase in output of about 30 percent,” explained Berlitz, “and we’ll soon be able to create so much light with LEDs that entirely new applications will become possible.”
Intelligent light for every driving situation
Audi developers envision even better things for future generations of headlights. For example, there are already high-beam headlights in pre-series development which will allow drivers to navigate roads at night without temporarily blinding oncoming drivers. This is made possible by a variable distribution of light: An electronic system continuously calculates the distance to any approaching vehicles to ensure that the road ahead is ideally illuminated at all times – without irritating oncoming drivers.
http://www.youtube.com/v/yOTy1eKIUEw&hl=en&fs=1
Audi R8 All-LED headlight design.
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Audi_Sportback_LEDs.jpgWayne Gerdes – CleanMPG (cleanmpg.com) – Dec. 21, 2008
Audi A1 Sportback – This LED headlight design says “Dare me”
Ingolstadt – Light-emitting diode’s (LED’s) equal efficient, reliable and one-of-a-kind automobile lighting. Audi was the first manufacturer to recognize the potential of LED lighting technology and incorporate it into its production vehicles. In fact, many Audi models are recognizable at a glance thanks to LED daytime running lights (DRL’s). The new Audi R8 was designed entirely on the basis of energy efficient and environmentally friendly LED headlight technology.
A tiny dot on your finger, as minute as a grain of sand. Fortunately, this speck of material uses electrical energy to generate more white light than any conventional light source in the world. An LED is a semiconductor device –just a square millimeter in size – which boasts a remarkable physical property. It can convert electrical energy directly into light and is unbeatably efficient when it comes to energy consumption. Today’s xenon and LED headlights are four times more energy efficient than halogen headlights. It is estimated that by 2018, LED technology should be approximately eight times more efficient than a halogen light. In addition, LEDs practically indefinite service life makes for an intriguing reason to use them in future automobile designs.
Performance LED's as a light source for headlamps?
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Audi_A6_Headlights.jpghttp://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Audi_A6_Taillamps.jpg
LED DRL’s and Tail lamps of the Audi A6 Avant
The tiny light sources present designers with opportunities. Stefan Sielaff, Audi’s Head of Design, explains, “LEDs unlock the door to unrealized design possibilities for exterior design and interiors alike.” A number of LED’s can be combined to create various shapes to provide a distinctive visual appearance. The taillights of the Audi A6 Avant are likely the best-known example of any tail end. These LED’s in a ring-shaped array have become every bit as instantly recognizable as the sweeping LED DRL's at the front end of the Audi A4.
The Audi R8 constitutes Audi’s future lighting strategy and is available with the world’s first all-LED headlights. In addition to the DRL’s, the turn signals as well as low-beam and high-beam headlights are executed by means of LED’s.
“A lot of people initially viewed this development as a mere marketing gimmick. Yet everyone who has seen these lights in action is not only astonished by the excellent output, but also thrilled with the homogenous distribution of light and the agreeable, daylight-esque color of the light,” says Dr. Wolfgang Huhn, Head of the Light and Visibility Department at Audi.
Greater safety, higher fuel economy
LEDs are capable of reducing a vehicle’s fuel consumption. When DRL’s become mandatory in the European Union beginning May 2011, Audi models with LED technology will be ahead of the curve. Just one vehicle’s conventional low-beam headlights, taillights, and license-plate illumination consume approximately 200 watts – which the alternator must constantly generate. By comparison, a mere 15 watts is required to power the new Audi A4’s modern LED DRL's, which have the added advantage of far better visibility for other road users. All in all, that equates to a decrease of about .5 mpgUS and about 4 g/km fewer CO2 emissions. Thanks to this new technology, Audi models with LED DRL’s sold in 2008 alone will consume during their first year of use approximately 2.5 Million fewer gallons of fuel and emit approximately 25,000 fewer metric tons of CO2 vs. vehicles equipped with halogen based LED DRL’s.
The discovery of digital light
“One day, a supplier called to tell me that white LEDs with 18 lumens per watt would soon be on the market. Suffice to say, that immediately got my attention,” said Stephan Berlitz, Head of Lighting Technology and Electronics in Ingolstadt. Lumens per watt are the horsepower of light: They light up the eyes of light developers just as the words torque and power light up the eyes of engine experts. For the sake of comparison, an ordinary household light bulb generates about 20 to 25 lumens per watt. A modern passenger vehicle’s xenon headlights, on the other hand, are very energy-efficient and create some 80 lumens per watt.
Though the 18 lumens generated by the first LED headlights in the Audi Q7ish Pikes Peak concept are old news, they created quite a stir in those days. The next generation of white high-performance LEDs will hit the market next year with a whopping 100 lumens per watt, thus surpassing the efficiency of xenon lights for the first time. This can be traced back to dramatic developments. “LED’s are similar to computer chips. Every two years there’s an increase in output of about 30 percent,” explained Berlitz, “and we’ll soon be able to create so much light with LEDs that entirely new applications will become possible.”
Intelligent light for every driving situation
Audi developers envision even better things for future generations of headlights. For example, there are already high-beam headlights in pre-series development which will allow drivers to navigate roads at night without temporarily blinding oncoming drivers. This is made possible by a variable distribution of light: An electronic system continuously calculates the distance to any approaching vehicles to ensure that the road ahead is ideally illuminated at all times – without irritating oncoming drivers.
http://www.youtube.com/v/yOTy1eKIUEw&hl=en&fs=1
Audi R8 All-LED headlight design.