Hyundai Mobis develops HUD lighting

HYUNDAI MOBIS is the brains behind many of the new technologies debuting in products already familiar to Aussie buyers – including the drive system powering the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6, and related vehicles from sister company Kia. But it is the firm’s latest headlight technology that has piqued our interest this week…

Building on adaptive HD LED headlight technology already in use around the globe (no pun intended), the next generation of Hyundai Mobis headlights will be able to project head-up display-style information directly onto the road ahead. The system will provide information not only for drivers but will also create useful projections that aim to improve road safety for pedestrians and cyclists.

Working in real time via satellite and 5G connectivity, the technology is expected to become the latest innovation in reducing night time car accidents. It can visualise road signs, text, shapes and other projections, using familiar road sign-based symbols onto the road surface, and has already been proven to work effectively in wet conditions.

Hyundai Mobis used the examples of a construction (road works) zone and a digital pedestrian crossing in demonstrating the technology to the motoring press this week and says it could potentially use the technology to project navigation, speed and other critical information on the road ahead, ensuring the driver’s vision remains focused.

The HD Lighting system is comprised of an array of high-definition micro LEDs as light sources which combine with a digital micro mirror device (DMD), a collection of tiny mirrors that act together as a reflector.

Hyundai Mobis says the key technology at play is the ability to “meticulously control” the DMD via software logic that combines information sourced from forward facing cameras and GPS-based navigation to “provide the driver with all necessary information”.

The system uses around 25,000 micro LEDs with a width of just 0.04mm each – that’s less than the width of a human hair. Hyundai Mobis says that this is 250 times as many LEDs as those featured in even the most state-of-the-art headlights currently available and allows the light to be “more sensitively” controlled.

The ultra-precise DMD technology used in the HD LED headlight system reflects light using microscopic mirrors measuring just 0.01mm. Light emitted from the densely packed LEDs are reflected via a series of 1.3 million of these digital mirrors, projecting the desired shape or symbol onto the road.

The lights can even locate objects and pedestrians of their own will, and direct light to where it is required.

Using data from the camera and GPS, the system can project images up to 1500mm x 1500mm up to 15m ahead of the vehicle, including so-called “communication lighting” to alert vulnerable road users of an approaching vehicle – a point that will obviously become more necessary as quieter electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles develop.

“In an era of autonomous driving, software technology capable of integrating numerous auto components into a single device will be more important than ever,” said a Hyundai Mobis representative.

“Hyundai Mobis is taking the lead in development of cutting-edge lamps securing technology capable of controlling them.”