As the number of electronic components in vehicles increases, so do the demands made on wholesalers and workshops. These days, a well-equipped mid-class car, for example, has up to 60 interlinked control units.
NHTSA is mulling over the introduction of two new safety features in new cars. The agency, which is entrusted with the responsibility to implement vehicle safety norms in the US, will decide whether to introduce
The new E-Class sees the global introduction of a new lighting technology, termed high-beam assist, in which the vehicle’s headlamps can dip or raise in a continuous fashion in response to the presence of other vehicles.
LED Japan Conference & Expo/Strategies in Light is a business-oriented conference and exhibition on high-brightness LEDs. It will be held September 16-17, 2009 at Pacifico Yokohama and leverages the success of Strategies in Light,
Hyundai Mobis will invest $1b by 2015 to develop automotive electronics technologies. The company will double its research staff to 2,000 in order to strengthen its research and development capabilities.
LEDs: Creativity in designing something new, which will be recognized by the consumer, is our task.
DVN: Rainer, you are one of the most famous worldwide experts on automotive lighting. Could you explain us how you arrived at this position?
Rainer Neumann: I am now 25 years in automotive lighting.
Started at Bosch for 13 years, I have been in Italy for Magneti Marelli for 3 years and now 9 years with Visteon.
I have contributed to a lot of innovations in that time, which you can see today on the road. I have app. 120 patents, where I am the inventor/co-inventor of, and I have worked out some of them together with various car manufacturers (luxury as well as standard car levels) to end up in final series production.
I think the combination of being creative and also having the capability to make it really happen is very important.
DVN: Start with LED rear lamps. Visteon are producing LED rear lamps in many car models. Nevertheless, the LED rear lamps have a relatively low take rate. Do you think it is because the cost or because there is not enough differentiation with bulbs?
R.N.: Yes, Visteon produces for example the Mondeo rear lamp (stop/tail) as well as the Cadillac CTS rear lamps or the Mercedes M-class rear lamps with LED.
Cost was always an issue. Nevertheless one can see an increasing interest even with smaller vehicle segments (B-class) in LED rear lamps.
The reason is, that in the last two years cars have been launched showing an interesting differentiation effect with LED technology, which was noticed by the industry and (even more important) by the consumer. It looks attractive; it is technical and has value for the consumer.
Whereas in the past luxury vehicles like Maserati already showed LED applications (banana shape) this was not that much noticed as it was especially dedicated for luxury vehicles. Today, one can see B-class vehicles presenting a specific style with LED rear lamps. Therefore, I am very much convinced that this will lead to an enhancement of LED applications in the future. Creativity in designing something new, which will be recognized by the consumer, is our task.
DVN: If we consider the LED DRL, the differentiation with bulb is great with examples of Audi and Porsche and now Mercedes cars. How do you see the future of LED in the DRL functions considering style and energy consumption reduction?
R.N.: There is no better application for DRL than LED in demonstrating the advantages of this light source.
Styling, the power consumption, long life time, fuel consumption, and CO2 reduction is fully in line with the strategy of car manufacturers for the future. Due to the fact, that we do have already a couple of different solutions on the road with unique styling we have to be creative to generate further, attractive solutions.
In France, new car registrations rose 7% in June from a year earlier. New car registrations of PSA-made models rose by 13% in June ’09 vs. June ’08, and Renault SA rose 10%, with an 87% jump
VW took the most awards in an annual U.S. automobile quality survey by a California research company, but Ford’s Focus also proved to be a favorite, rising to the top of the survey’s small car category.
An earnings boost from the launch of the redesigned Mercedes-Benz E-class line has made Daimler more optimistic the worst of the current decline is finally behind it, chief executive Dieter Zetsche
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