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OUTLOOK FOR AUTOMOTIVE LIGHTING SYSTEMS OF AUTONOMOUS

VEHICLES

Conference Paper · August 2016

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 9th CJK Lighting Conference (Busan, Korea)

OUTLOOK FOR AUTOMOTIVE LIGHTING SYSTEMS OF

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES
1 1 1 1 2
Herie Park , Jin-Chul Kim , Shin Won Park , Hyensou Pak , Chan-Su Lee
1
Automotive Lighting LED-IT Convergence Education (ALLICE), Yeungnam University, Korea
2
Department of Electronic Engineering, Yeungnam University, Korea

ABSTRACT
Light sources and lighting technology adapted to vehicles have been developed for assisting
drivers’ safety and perceiving other vehicles and pedestrians during the nighttime. As
autonomous vehicles driven by data obtained from sensors are shown up, the role of the
automotive lighting system should be reconsidered for the future traffic environment. This paper
presents the future technology of automotive lighting systems adapted to autonomous vehicles. It
describes required functionalities of the lighting systems and related topics such as energy
management, light pollution, and hybrid lighting systems for the road combined with computer-
and human-drivers during a transition period.
Keywords: Autonomous vehicles, automotive lighting system, traffic environment

1. INTRODUCTION
Autonomous vehicles are a promising technology that improves road safety, efficient traffic flow,
driver’s convenience, and decreases fuel consumption [1]. Many major automakers such as Benz,
Ford, and Volvo have announced their plans to develop autonomous vehicles. Global IT
companies have also become involved in the automotive industry to support autonomous driving
technologies. Most modern vehicles have already adopted autonomous driving technologies or
driver assistance systems such as cruise control, lane keeping, collision and pedestrian detection,
park assist, curve control, and blind spot warnings [2]. These systems monitor vehicle
surroundings and actively support the driver to avoid accidents caused by collision, driver’s
carelessness, or drowsy driving. With the development of related technologies, vehicles will
increase the level of their autonomy.
One of the components of vehicles, automotive lighting systems, have played an important role in
nighttime visibility and safety, occupant comfort, alerting other drivers and pedestrians, and
supplying light to interior of the vehicle. Many of these roles directly or indirectly influence the
driver’s performance. In addition, since external lighting systems such as headlamps, rear lamps,
and fog lamps have more impact on driving performance during the nighttime or under adverse
weather conditions, automakers have tried to make their high-end vehicles more competitively by
installing adaptive front lighting systems, matrix beams, and pixel lighting through their high-end
vehicles. It helps enhance the performance of drivers and protect pedestrians as well as other
vehicles.
However, in autonomous vehicles, the role of lighting systems should be reconsidered, in these
vehicles, there is no human driver who requires visual comfort or acquires environmental data for
safe driving. Indeed, a driverless vehicle does not need the visibility to detect road indicators and
obstacles such as pedestrians or other vehicles, but requires visual comfort inside the vehicle for
passengers, more precisely generated signals to be recognized by environment, and sensors to
detect the surroundings more accurately. It means the lighting system of the autonomous vehicle
will have different roles to the conventional one. In such a different condition, we first describe
required lighting systems for autonomous vehicles. Then, we discuss related topics on automotive
lighting systems such as energy management, light pollution, and hybrid lighting systems used for
vehicles moving on the road combined with computer- and human-drivers during the transition
period.

2. ROLES OF LIGHTING SYSTEMS OF AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES

The American NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) and the SAE International
(Society of Automotive Engineers International) international classified vehicle automation levels
as described in Fig.1 [3]. The vehicle automation system at lower levels functions as a driver
assistant. Technological composition of the driver assistance systems will achieve the final

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 9th CJK Lighting Conference (Busan, Korea)

automation level, namely, the autonomous driving level. At this level, the vehicle performs the
entire driving task without any help of a human driver. The human driver inside the autonomous
vehicle may take a role as a driver assistant or just as a passenger. In this section, the role of the
lighting systems of autonomous vehicles will be discussed.

Fig.1 Vehicle automation levels classified by NHTSA and SAE international

2.1 Enhancing detectability of vehicle sensors
Lighting systems in vehicles are responsible for illuminating traffic space and the vehicle’s cabin,
and signaling to surroundings. Balanced light intensity and light distribution improve the visibility
of drivers during the nighttime or under adverse weather conditions and guarantee convenient
and safe performance on the road. However, autonomous vehicles do not require human visual
perception, but require visible and invisible data obtained from multi-sensors which are
considered to be the visual system of vehicles.
The sensors for perceiving the traffic environment are cameras, GPS (Global Positioning System),
IMU (Inertial Moment Unit), radar, sound, or laser range-finders as shown in Fig.2. [4-5]. All those
sensors do not require a bright condition. Therefore, the lighting systems for sensors will replace
conventional lighting systems in order to improve detectability of the vehicle sensors. It gives a
minimum quantity of the light to capture images and generates more accurate visible and invisible
light signals for V2V (Vehicle to Vehicle) or V2I (Vehicle to Infrastructure) communications.

(a) Three hardware technologies [4] (b) A sketch for multi-sensor data recording [5]
Fig.2 Multi-sensor technologies
2.2 Improving the interior ambient condition for passengers
Since the passengers inside autonomous vehicles do not need to always hold a steering wheel,
their freedom increases on the road. Thus, the main activity of drivers is no longer driving a car.
Instead, they could work, have a meeting, rest, watch a movie, or read a book as if they were in
their office or home. Leading automakers have presented their autonomous concept cars and
highlighted the design and functionality of the interior of the cars [6-7]. Fig.3 shows the interiors of
the Mercedes-Benz F105 and the Bosch show car.
Depending on driving distance and duration, and passengers’ preferences and activities, the
cabin of autonomous vehicles could function as a mobile office, a mobile home, or even a mobile
theater. Consequently, the environment of the cabin should transform moment by moment to be
suitable for the activity of the passengers. It could be possible to equip the controllable interior
illumination systems, and to use in-car display devices.
For improving interior ambient condition of vehicles, however, the regulations of the interior
illumination of vehicles should be checked first, and additional research should be conducted on
the visual effects on other drivers of strong lighting inside vehicles. Moreover, as a controllable

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 9th CJK Lighting Conference (Busan, Korea)

and emotional light source, LED will be widely used in automotive interior illumination. Therefore,
the physical and psychological effects of LED lighting should be validated.

(a) Benz F105 [6] (b) Bosch show car in the CES 2016 [7]
Fig.3 The interior of the future vehicles
2.3 Trying visual communication with people
Automotive lighting systems installed outside a vehicle help other vehicles and pedestrians to
recognize the existence of the vehicle and its driving condition. For example, headlamps, tail
lamps, and daytime running lamps show the position or movement of the vehicle. Also, stop
lamps, direction indicators, hazard warning lamps, and reversing lamps anticipate the movement
of the vehicle. Since those lamps are helpful for human perception, it could be eliminated on the
road. Similarly it could be enough to generate a minimum quantity of light or signals to be
recognized by other vehicles instead of equipping all those listing lamps.
In reality, there are, however, pedestrians and passengers who want to know the traffic
conditions on the road, so those lamps will be always required as a visual communication tool
with a simple and intuitive design. Fig.4 (a) shows a lighting system communicating with people
by displaying human language. In the same way, Fig.4 (b) expresses the sound intensity of the
music played in a vehicle to people who are outside the vehicle. In addition, it is suggested to
equip exterior lamps indicating whether the driver is a human or a computer by using different
color temperatures of the light.

(a) Benz F105 (b) Benz Vision Tokyo Concept Car

Fig.4 Visual communication with others [6]

3. OTHER ISSUES OF AUTOMOTIVE VEHICLES

Apart from emerging technologies of automotive lighting systems, there are also related topics to
discuss. This section describes several issues such as energy management, light pollution, and
hybrid technology on the road combined with human- and computer-drivers.
3.1 Energy Management
Fuel consumption can be economized through autonomous driving technologies. Since the
sensor technologies help to obtain real-time information on traffic and surroundings, the
computer-driver accurately commands optimal driving patterns of the vehicle to maximize the fuel
efficiency [8]. On the other hand, most autonomous driving systems, lighting systems, and display
devices consume electricity. Due to the increase in usage of these systems in autonomous

3
 9th CJK Lighting Conference (Busan, Korea)

vehicles, it is sure that electric loads supporting autonomous driving and the activity of
passengers will increase dramatically. Therefore, it is important to manage power consumption of
the systems having a low dependency on driving. Consequently, interior lighting systems and
display devices would be a target for reducing power consumption in certain conditions for vehicle
energy management.
3.2 Light Pollution
It is known that artificial lights such as automotive lights and street lights cause harmful effects to
wildlife and the ecosystem. As mentioned above, a computer-driven car requires less light than a
human-driven car. Therefore, there are more effective and various methods to reduce the light
pollution in automotive lighting systems of autonomous vehicles. For example, on an empty
highway, it is enough to turn on the light to a minimum intensity to be recognized by others.
3.3 Hybrid Lighting Technology
Over the next several decades, human drivers and computer drivers will share the road. The first
and most important reason is that the lifespan of vehicles is more than 10 years. The second
reason is that autonomous driving technologies are not yet mature. It will require much time to
develop related technologies and policies. Before fully-automated technologies are mature,
conventional traffic conditions and policies will have to remain in place and the priority will be
given to human drivers. Therefore, especially in automotive exterior lighting systems, hybrid
lighting technologies will be required to keep conventional lighting functions.

4. CONCLUSION
Automotive lighting systems have played an important role in nighttime visibility and safety,
occupant comfort, alerting other drivers and pedestrians, and supplying light to the interior of
vehicles. As road conditions and surroundings are recognized by sensors and computer-drivers
instead of human-drivers in autonomous vehicles, it will require additional lighting system
functionalities. This paper suggests the lighting systems enhance the detectability of vehicle
sensors, improve the interior ambient condition for passengers, and trying visual communication
with people. It presents related issues such as energy management, light pollution, and hybrid
lighting systems for the road during a transition period combined with computer- and human-
drivers.

REFERENCES
(1) Christos Katrakazas, Mohammed Quddus, Wen-Hua Chen, Lipika Dekra, Real-time motion
planning methods for autonomous on-road driving: State-of-the-art and future research
directions, Transportation Research Part C, 2015.
(2) Jonathan DiClemente, Serban Mogos, Ruby Wang, Autonomous Car Policy Report 2014,
Carnegie Mellon University, 2014.
(3) Thomas Winkle, Safety Benefits of Automated Vehicles: Extended Findings from Accident
Research for Development, Validation and Testing, Autonomous Driving, Springer, 2015.
(4) Texas Instruments – Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (http://www.ti.com/lsds/media/
images/shared/automotive/21260_NEW_ADAS_radar_lg.jpg).
(5) Reinhard Klette, Vision-based Driver Assistance Systems, MItech, TR-103, 2015.
(6) The Mercedes-Benz F105 (https://www.mercedes-benz.com/en/mercedes-benz/innovation/
research-vehicle-f-015-luxury-in-motion/).
(7) Parshanth Halady Dattatreya, Future Automotive Interiors – The 3 rd Living Space, SID 2016
Digest, 2016.
(8) Changxu Wu, Guozhen Zhao, Bo Ou, A fuel economy optimization system with applications
in verhicles with human drivers and autonomous vehicles, Transportation Research Part D,
2011.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was supported by Human Resources Program in the Transportation Specialized
Lighting Core Technology Development (No. N0001364) granted financial resource from the
Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy, Republic of Korea.
Corresponding Author Name: Herie Park (bakery@yu.ac.kr)
Affiliation: Automotive Lighting LED-IT Convergence Education (ALLICE), Yeungnam University, Korea

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