When it is unveiled internationally later this year, the new Audi Q6 e-tron will represent another leap forward in terms of automotive technologies as well as a number of firsts for Audi. For starters it will be the first all-electric vehicle to be produced in Ingolstadt and it will also be the first model based on the newly developed Premium Platform Electric (PPE) which has been jointly developed by Audi and Porsche.

Amongst its many attributes, the Q6 e-tron will introduce a whole new level in automotive lighting when it arrives, furthering Audi’s extensive work in the filed. Indeed its new active digital light signature represents yet another world first and is a system that offers up new versatility for lighting design as well as expanding its uses into communications and as an active safety tool.

As well as having its own distinctive design, this new system will allow customers to optionally select digital light signatures for digital daytime running lights in the Matrix LED headlights and the new generation of digital OLED rear lights. In addition it will let customers book digital light signatures on demand and buy digital light signatures after purchasing their car.

The system also greatly expands the possibilities for car-toX communication where the external lights can be used to communicate with other road users as an extension of the vehicle’s safety systems – dubbed the communication light.

Trouble up ahead? The system uses information from the swarm to pinpoint potential hazards ahead and then use specific light modes to communicate the fact to other road users. 

As an active safety aid, the new communication lights not only warns other motorists of hazards ahead through the use of warning light signatures at the front and rear, but also warn approaching cars or cyclists through a rear light graphic in an extension of the existing exit warning function which previously only warned Audi occupants of approaching vehicles as they attempted to exit the vehicle. In addition, the communication light also uses a specific light signature at the front and rear to indicate the car’s park assist status when it is in automated parking mode. This makes it clear to road users in the immediate vicinity that the car is safe to approach.

From a technical viewpoint, all this is made possible by a software module in one of the Audi Q6 e-tron's domain computers, jointly developed by Audi and the Group’s software company CARIAD. In the case of the second-generation digital OLED rear lights, the six 360-segment OLED panels generate a new image every 10 milliseconds using a specially developed algorithm. This algorithm lets the active digital light signature demonstrate the car’s vibrancy and ability to interact personally by making the Q6 e-tron’s ‘brain activity’ visible through constant movement. The active digital light signature at the front is created via the interaction of the algorithm with 12 dimmable segments, while at the rear, all the digital OLED segments are used. The individual light segments interact so that the light signature's overall image does not vary in its intensity.

The next generation of digital daytime running lights and the light modules are now visually separate, creating greater design clarity. Audi’s designers have designed the individual LEDs which now number 70, in this new evolution of digital daytime running lights as transparent 3D objects. The front section of the digital daytime running lights features a precise prismatic structure, while a ‘metalised’ 3D trim surrounds them to draw the focus to the car’s digital eyes.

The overall result of the design and technology is a light design that is at once distinctive as well as offering unheard of flexibility, efficiency and safety – as well as, of course, producing superior light.

It’s another significant step forward in the brand’s ongoing development of external automotive light sources as more than just, well, lights.