Roland Pruegel
Connected Mobility
A vehicle equipped with animated lights can communicate with its passengers at a distance. Using agile development methods, we developed a smart light function to this end.
Animated lights that welcome passengers from afar are nothing usual these days. So why not add more light-based functions to enhance comfort and convenience for passengers?
With that thought in mind, we developed an exterior light control function from the bottom up. The great challenge here was to come up with a flexible way of controlling all exterior lights and the vehicle’s additional actuators. We were also tasked to get this feature ready for mass production and integrate it into a new central E/E architecture with an AUTOSAR environment.
Parked cars can now send their passengers on their merry way with a projection. The stationary vehicle’s headlamps can stage entertaining light shows. And illuminated animations can make it easier to find the vehicle in a dark a parking lot. This flexible control over exterior lights ups the fun factor while enhancing convenience.
Moving from an inceptive idea to a production-ready product, this development effort focused on furnishing a sophisticated way of controlling all exterior lights and assuring the solution’s functionality. We developed the fundamental architecture and the software component, readying both for mass production. The individual lighting scenarios are not preprogrammed. They can be flexibly configured later down the line. This is another reason why the module is reusable for multiple derivatives.
We also implemented the function in a central ECU with an AUTOSAR environment. With the benefit of our agile software development toolchain and CI/CD-based automated tests, we were able to ramp up a high-quality solution for rapid release. And we remain at our customer’s disposal to provide post-development support on the production line and, if necessary, to make adjustments on the fly.
The product of an agile development effort, these animated lights serve to communicate with the world outside and enhance convenience. Providing flexible control over all exterior lights, this solution can be configured for various use cases. This function readily ports to other models of cars and can be developed further without much effort.
