Samsung's PixCell LED Promises Safer Automotive Lighting For The Future
One of the driving forces in the automotive manufacturing industry is improved safety. Active safety systems are a major part of all new vehicle designs in recent years. Significant work is being put into assisting drivers and providing solutions to help the driver navigate and anticipate danger while improving the overall driving experience. Samsung says one most promising innovations for helping improve automotive safety is lighting.
One of the most significant innovations in automotive lighting is called Adaptive Driving Beam (ADB). The technology automatically adjusts the light in the car's headlamps to maximize visibility in changing weather and traffic environments. Samsung is showing off a new type of ADB that it says is a first-of-its-kind lighting solution known as the PixCell LED.
PixCell LED combines more than 100 independently addressable light pieces with silicon walls into a single LED chip. Samsung says its lighting solution provides "extraordinarily" well-targeted, high-contrast lighting providing significantly improved road visibility to drivers. According to Samsung, the light works well in all driving environments, including in darkness, rain, or fog.
The video describing the lighting solution can be seen below. In the video, Samsung shows that rather than switching between high and low beams as most vehicles do today, the PixCell LED is able to turn off elements that would shine a bright light into the eyes of oncoming drivers. That means the oncoming drivers aren't blinded while the driver with the PixCell LED maintains the most lighting possible in other areas of the roadway.
Lighting solutions such as this are critical to improving driver safety, particularly in dark rural areas where wildlife poses a significant hazard to drivers. Most people today don't use their high beam lights, resulting in significantly reduced visibility. Samsung does not indicate when we might see the PixCell LED in a production vehicle.