- New mid-engine sports car features high-tech headlights
- Laser high-beam offers high light intensity and excellent range
- Euro-spec availability – Currently not available on U.S. models
February 16, 2015 | Ingolstadt, Germany — Audi is revealing the headlights of its new R8 as the first of a number of technology highlights of the top sports car. The R8 uses LED headlights which can be supplemented by a laser high‑beam lighting module as an option.
The new R8 will set new standards among high‑performance sports cars – including in its lighting technology. As an option, the latest car development by Audi can be equipped with a laser spot as the high‑beam headlight. The special appeal of laser lighting is that it uses high‑intensity laser diodes, which generate a lot of light energy from a very small component. Compared to LED high‑beam headlights, laser high‑beams attain nearly twice the lighting range.
Each headlight contains one laser module that operates with four high‑intensity laser diodes. This module bundles the four intense blue‑light laser beams. Then a phosphor converter transforms the blue light into pure white light. An identifying characteristic of the laser headlights is their blue light signature. Standard equipment in the new R8 includes an LED headlight system. All lighting functions are produced with 37 LEDs per headlight.
The laser spot for the high‑beam light made its debut in the summer of 2014 in the Audi R8 LMX, a limited edition model of the previous R8 model series. Shortly before that, it was used in the Audi R18 e‑tron quattro race car at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The laser spot is the latest production technology in a long line of lighting innovations. Audi introduced LED technology to the market for the first time in 2004 – in the daytime running lights of the Audi A8 L W12. Lighting technologies such as LED daytime running lights, Matrix LED headlights and laser spot high‑beam lights are prime examples of technology that visualize the core values of the Audi brand: progressiveness, sportiness and sophistication.
AUDI MAKES NIGHT INTO DAY: NEW LIGHTING COMPETENCE CENTER
- Biggest automotive light tunnel in Europe
- Test facility for high beam and new lighting assistance systems
- Prof. Dr. Hackenberg: “Light is a medium of information”
February 16, 2015 | Ingolstadt, Germany — Audi is extending its lead in the field of automotive lighting technology with a new lighting competence center at the company’s site in Ingolstadt. Vehicles can be driven into this underground light tunnel, which is 120 meters long and offers new possibilities, especially for the development of innovative lighting solutions and camera-based lighting assistance systems.
“Audi is the leading brand for automotive lighting technology,” stated Prof. Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg, Member of the Board of Management for Technical Development. “From the xenon plus headlight to the matrix‑LED headlight to the laser light, we have been putting pioneering innovations into series production for the past 20 years. Light is part of an automobile’s esthetics and is becoming an interactive medium of information.”
The new lighting competence center at the corporate headquarters of the Audi Group is the biggest lighting tunnel for vehicles in Europe. Inside the matt‑black‑painted tunnel, the development engineers test systems such as adaptive high beam and camera‑based lighting assistance systems. Such systems avoid dazzling drivers of oncoming traffic and enhance safety.
The lighting competence center and the laser lab under an eleven‑floor building presented a great challenge for the civil engineers because it had to do without supporting columns and required an interior height of up to nine meters. The floor surface is similar to a normal road. The Audi engineers there cooperate closely with the designers so that new ideas can be put onto the road even faster. Their motorsport‑colleagues also often deliver valuable stimulus from the world’s toughest test bench: the racetrack.