New Audi LED lights bring warning signs and customisation

Audi has revealed that the advanced lighting set to be used by its upcoming Q6 E-tron will establish two world firsts for production models: the ability to provide specific warning signs to fellow road users and a range of bespoke ‘signatures’ for each driver. 

The new SUV features digital daytime-running lights with 61 individual segments (in place of the 10 on the smaller Q4 E-tron), while the third-generation OLED tail-lights use 60 segments per OLED tile – a tenfold increase over those of the Audi A8. Together, they provide the Q6 E-tron with up to eight different lighting signatures. 

The tail-lights, with a total of 360 individual elements in six OLED tiles, feature a world first with what Audi calls the Dynamic Active Light function, which sees the lighting graphic within each of the OLEDs in the lower part of the lights alter without affecting the overall brightness. 

The ability to do so is key to meeting international road safety standards. They also bring additional so-called Car-to-X functionality with the ‘Communication Light’, which introduces a red triangular warning symbol, in combination with the hazard lights, to warn other drivers of obstructions, which are detected by the car itself or Audi’s cloud-based road monitoring system. 

Additionally, Audi has programmed its new Communication Light to show the letter A when the Q6 E-tron’s Intelligent Parking Assistant is triggered and it performs an automated reverse parking manoeuvre. 

Audi says this is the first stage of a more advanced system that will include other symbols. “We have opened discussions with regulatory authorities on providing more symbols, including dynamic symbols that flash or strobe for additional effect,” said Audi lighting project manager Werner Thomas.