MANILA: Audi is flashing its latest lighting technology, digital OLED (organic light-emitting diode), from the rear lamps of the new Q5 — a first for any automaker worldwide.

After debuting OLED lighting technology for use in headlights back in 2016, the German automaker now shifts its attention on the personalization of taillight signatures.

“Headlight technology has seen a rapid evolution at Audi in recent decades. In addition, we have been decisively driving the development of rear-lighting systems,” said Dr. Werner Thomas, OLED technology project manager at Audi.

Using OLED allows Audi to control individual segments of the panel radiators to determine their brightness and contrast, which allows designers great variability and high precision with hardware that’s light, thin, and extremely energy efficient.

In the Q5 for example, customers have a choice of three signatures in the taillights when buying the unit. There’s also animation effects such as coming-home/leaving-home lighting scenarios that can be programmed.

“Here the taillights turn into a kind of display on the outer shell, which will provide us with ample opportunities and prospects in terms of design, personalization, communication and safety going forward,” added Thomas.

Digital OLEDs will also be key in advancing Audi’s autonomous driving technology. Currently, the proximity detection feature on the Q5 activates all the OLED segments in the taillight when another vehicle comes up from behind a stationary Q5. As soon as the Q5 starts to move forward, the taillights revert to the original lighting signature. This is just a prelude of how car-to-X communication is enhanced by digital OLED.

Photo from Audi

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