I just arrived in Detroit for a long week. After our Spring in France, returning to the Michigan winter is not easy, but let’s do it! The North American vehicle lighting market is quite dynamic, with a major technology shift, including software development pushed by new SDV architectures, NHTSA’s ADB and AEB specifications being added to the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, design trends, and competition between California and Michigan to be the OEM nexus of the United States. Those are the big factors, but not the only ones.
First, we have our follow-up event on AEB for the new FMVSS 127, which requires pedestrian detection by night with low beams only. Most OEMs use only cameras and standard radars to detect pedestrians; will that be enough without any fault detection? Can it suffice to avoid phantom braking (which has been in the news in Europe lately)? How can lighting – and the lighting community – contribute?
Secondly: last year during our Detroit lighting event, OEM studios and design schools expressed their wish for an open discussion about design trends and lighting, and asked me to organize something in small committee. That’s what we have done; for the first time, we are organizing a small event in a really cool place: Newlab, in downtown Detroit. We’ll have two round tables to talk about lighting, exterior design, and HMI; and 2 round tables to talk about interior design, lighting, & CMF.
Design schools’ participation in the event will be quite interesting; we’ll get their views about what is happening in North America particularly, with its super important truck market (and divergent-from-rest-of-world regulations) which makes the lighting market different and a bit special in USA.
Just after the talks, starting at 7pm will be our annual DVN member cocktail. All DVN member can join; just contact me about it. This will be a good occasion to exchange thoughts and prepare for the main DVN event there in Detroit, on 9 – 10 June.
Sincerely yours,
