Revolutionizing Vehicle Lighting
When it comes to lighting innovations, Audi has many accomplishments, especially with LEDs. For instance, the D3 (second-gen) Audi A8 was the very first car to feature LED daytime running lights. After that, it was the first-generation R8 that became that had full LED illumination, front and rear.
Then, the third-generation A8 became the first production car with matrix LED lighting, after that, the TT RS became one of the first cars to have OLED tail lights. In other words, Audi has done a lot for the world of vehicle lighting, and many of its innovations have become commonplace today.
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Another World-First
It seems that the folks from Ingolstadt want to keep its lighting innovations streak going by introducing yet another world-first. Its latest bit of lighting tech can be seen in the Q9, and it’s the very first one in the world to be available with curved OLED exterior lighting. While that doesn’t sound all too exciting, this has all the potential to change how rear lights are lit and designed.
One could say that this has allowed Audi to bend light, figuratively speaking, of course. By curving the OLED panel, it lets brake lights and turn signals be more visible from the corners of the vehicle. But the main advantage of doing this is surface uniformity, and OLEDs deliver uniform illumination without the need for point bulbs or reflectors.
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What Makes it Special?
The carrier glass of these OLEDs measures just 0.1 millimeters thick, which is 1/256ths of an inch. For easier visualization, that’s roughly the thickness of a hair strand, and that’s allowed Audi to ‘bend’ the panel to a significant degree. That allows the panel to follow the contours of the vehicle, as well as giving designers more freedom to explore more daring light designs.
As Audi has been making OLEDs for a decade now, it’s learned enough to move the technology forwards. Now in it’s the third-iteration, the Q9 boasts the has the largest OLED panel Audi has built to date. It has a total of 512 segments spread across six digital OLED panels. The individually controllable segments give the Q9’s rear lights multiple static, active, or semi-active digital light signatures, as well as project warning symbols.
It’s worth pointing out that these curved OLEDs are not fitted to all Q9 trims. If you want these lights, you can only get these in the Prestige model, as it’s not optional on both base Premium and mid-spec Premium Plus variants. These lights are fitted as standard in the SQ9.
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About the author
Anton Andres
News Editor