Laser in automotive Lighting: chances and challenges

Schmidt, C.¹

¹ Hella KGaA Hueck & Co., Lippstadt, Germany

Christian.Schmidt@hella.com

Abstract

In the last three years there was a lively discussion about the application of Laser in automotive lighting. After the first announcement by BMW in 2011, two cars with partly Laser actuated headlamps came to serial production last year. Currently there is an intensive debate how far the introduction of Laser as a light source for headlamps is caused by marketing reasons and to what extend new possibilities open up thanks to that new technology.

In this article new chances and challenges of Laser as a light source for future automotive lighting will be discussed. Therefore we have to look at completely different light functions: from the near-field illumination up to high resolution adaptive driving beam. The main focus of this paper is not the substitution of already existing light sources. More interesting is to consider new concepts which can’t be realized using conventional techniques. To evaluate such solutions we have also to consider the current available Laser light sources and the required safety concepts.