AI and Laser hot topics at 2025 ALE Conference

By Wolfgang Huhn, DVN senior advisor

This year’s “20th Auto Lamp Industry Development Technology Forum and Shanghai International Auto Lamp Exhibition” (ALE) was held at the Huaqiao International Expo Center from 26 to 28 March. Around 200 exhibitors showcased their products and services in 3 huge exhibition halls with 3 parallel conferences covering Lighting, Vehicle display and Cockpit. The aisles were a little less crowded this year than last year (2024: over 40,000 visitors) due to travel restrictions imposed by companies around the world to cut costs.

As usual, the 3-day event began with a VIP reception in a luxurious setting close to the venue. Key industry, government and regulatory figures were invited to an enjoyable program of speeches, food and drink, entertainment and networking. The two hosts, Ms. Chen Qiong and He Yutang, lead through the program like TV entertainers.

Left : The two ALE hosts Mr. He Yutang from CATARC and Ms. Chen Qiong from Audi China
Right : In the center the famous Sally Zhou, President of Xingyu, with DVN’s Wolfgang Huhn (wearing a beanie because his right ear was injured in an accident)

The conference began, as always in China, with many greetings from board members and officials. After the traditional photo, the sessions began with presentations on adaptive and intelligent lighting concepts. Besides the usual product introductions, it was clear that lasers are coming back with several new applications such as RGB lasers, scanning laser systems and blue lasers to color by color-wheel technology. The regulatory session, chaired by Davide Puglisi, Secretary General of the GTB, dealt with harmonization, regulatory developments and the importance of lighting electronics in regulations.

Another big and important part of the conference was the application of AI technology to lighting systems. Especially the car manufacturers like BYD, Huawei and especially Zeekr: “The Future of Automotive Lighting in the AI Era”, Dongfeng: “Research of Emotional Design of Auto Lamp in the Background of AI” and Geely Research: “Automotive Lighting in the AI Era” highlighted this new field with great potential. But most of the speeches from Tier 1 suppliers also dealt with AI. The real hot topic of this year’s ALE conference.

The Exhibition is huge. Around 20 Tier 1 automotive lighting companies displayed their headlights, taillights, ISD displays of all sizes, ground projectors and many other products. I give you some examples below. The mechanical solutions of last year’s ALE have almost completely disappeared this year.

The large LED ISD screens are shown with smaller and smaller pitches (1.4 mm and less) and in RGB. The trend is towards better technology at lower cost.
In Europe, uLED technology is completely replacing DMD, but not in China. New DMD concepts with lower resolution, higher luminance and lower cost and volume were shown.
ams Osram showed its Allyos LED-on-Foil technology for the first time in China and attracted a lot of interest.
The number of international Tier 2 booths is growing (semiconductors, materials) while the number of international Tier 1 booths is shrinking. However, the importance of non-Chinese companies is low at the ALE.