taillights
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BMW wants to put super-efficient OLED tail lights on your next car
The tail lights on most existing cars leave a lot to be desired: they're big, power-hungry and need reflectors to be visible from all angles. BMW is clearly frustrated with those clunky designs, as it just shared a load of details about its upcoming, OLED-based Organic Light technology. The extra-thin, uniformly lit strips promise tail lights (and some interior lights) that are both easy to see without reflectors and use just a fraction of the power of existing systems. They should also lead to more exotic-looking cars -- BMW can already cut the OLEDs into any 2D shape it likes, and it's planning both flexible and 3D lights in the future.
Intel Labs developing 'talking' tail lights for safer roads, we go eyes-on (video)
Smarter headlights could guide you out of a rainstorm, but intelligent tail lights could enable communication between vehicles. At least, that's the idea behind a collaborative Connected Vehicle Safety project between Intel and National Taiwan University. Its purpose is so that you'll be able to know just what the vehicles around you are up to -- whether they're speeding or braking or making a left -- by receiving data from their tail lights. Your vehicle could then stop or accelerate automatically without you needing to intervene, or you could choose to react manually if desired. We saw a demonstration of the concept at a Research @ Intel event in San Francisco with a couple of scooters, so head on past the break to learn how it all works, with video to boot.
