Audi has really been a bit of a pioneer when it comes to slick tail lights in recent years. Sure, we don’t get a lot of these innovations stateside because of our weird lighting laws, but we can all surely admire the arrays on display across cars like the A7. Now, the German automaker has a new tail light in the works that’s set to blow our socks off once again.
The new lighting rig debuted on the Q6 e-tron prototype, which broke cover this week. It still uses the same organic light-emitting diode (OLED) tech that you’ll find in cars like the A8, but Audi is taking things up a notch this time.
According to Autocar, the new model will use ten times as many lighting elements at the rear end, compared with the current Audi A8. This means that the lights can be used to broadcast much more complex messages, and will no doubt come with all kinds of sleek animations as well. As Autocar reports:
“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.”
In this lower element, the car can display symbols to indicate to other drivers what is going on. In a press release shared by Audi, the company said this could include a triangle emblem when your hazards are on, as well as symbol to show that you’re about to open your doors. This, Audi says, will be great at warning cyclists when you open your door into a bike lane without looking.
“Audi recognized the potential of using OLED technology in rear lights early on,” said Stephan Berlitz, head of lighting development at Audi, in a statement.
“Due to their strong contrast, they are gradually turning into exterior displays, making them an important enabler of communication with the car’s surroundings. With the proximity indication function, we have been using light to interact with other road users since 2020. The Audi Q6 e-tron now adds the communication light to improve road safety further.”
This new communication light can be used to alert road users to all kinds of things you might find on the highway. The light can highlight accidents and breakdowns on the road ahead through the display of one symbol, as well as other emblems to show that the driver has switched on the car’s automatic parking features, emergency brake or if they’ve called for roadside assistance.
It’s a pretty clever bit of kit, but will only work once every other road user finds out what the various symbols actually mean.