BMW i8, frontal shot on open road: first high beam is switched on, then the laserlights Medium wide shot of BMW i8 on open road, frontal, laserlights are switched on. Wide shot of BMW i8 with laserlights. Wide shot of BMW i8, change from high beam to laserlights, Alpine panorama in the background, pan. Side aerial shot of BMW i8 on open road with laserlights Bird's-eye aerial shot from rear. BMW i8 stationary, change from parking light to low beam to high beam and then to laserlights. Aerial shot, BMW i8 on the road, change from low beam to high beam to laserlights. Shot of BMW i8 and BMW 3 Series as they come to a standstill. Shot from the rear, section of BMW 3 Series and BMW i8 The BMW i8 first changes from parking light to laserlights, then to low beam, the BMW 3 Series switches the low beam on, then changes shortly afterwards to high beam, the BMW i8 switches on the high beam too. BMW 3 Series changes to low beam and BMW i8 to laserlights. Close-up of BMW i8 and BMW 3 Series with low beam, BMW 3 Series changes to high beam then back to low beam. Then the BMW i8 changes from low to high beam and activates the laserlights. Laserlight test with deer on the road. Section of BMW i8, low beam is switched on, changes to laserlights and a deer becomes visible on the road, the light is switched off again.

Gate opens - BMW i8 switches laserlights on and drives into the light tunnel. Wide shot from above, BMW i8 comes to a standstill in the light tunnel with laserlights on. Close-up: BMW i8 comes to a standstill, close-up of headlights with laserlights. Tracking shot from the rear, BMW i8 with laserlights. Medium wide shot of BMW i8 with high beam. Wide shot of BMW i8 in light tunnel with LED low beam, Stefan Weber gets out of the car and marks the light/dark boundaries on a white magnetic wall so as to check the correct headlamp alignment. Close-up of Stefan Weber making magnet wall test light setting: First LED low beam, then laserlights. Wide shot of light tunnel, section of BMW i8 with LED low beam, Stefan Weber marks light/dark boundaries on magnet wall, change to laserlights. Close-up of BMW i8 headlamps, change from daytime running light to low beam, high beam to laserlights.

By using the high luminance of the high brightness laser based light sources we can double the visibility range of the driver and so we reach the maximum of safety for our customers. Of course it is a big difference, if you want to use such a new laser based light source in a room, for an example in a projector at plus 25 degree Celsius or if it has to guarantee automotive conditions globally. And that means from minus 40 degree Celsius to plus 80 degree Celsius. We guarantee our high quality standards worldwide and therefore we don’t just develop and test here in Munich we also do worldwide tests for example in Death Valley. Possible glare is completely avoided by using a camera based high beam assistant. This camera based system detects oncoming traffic and switches automatically from high beam to low beam and if the road is free again it switches from low beam to high beam again and we have the full range of 600m.

Close-up, single laser beam on exhibit. Medium wide shot of exhibit with laser. Medium wide shot, several lasers are visible. Phosphorous panel is held in the path of the laser, transforming the laser into bright light similar to daylight. Close-up of phosphorous panel. Close-up of laser, shift of focus. Close-up of laser. Pan from BMW i8 in daytime running light to laser exhibit. Pan from laser exhibit to BMW i8. Pan from laser exhibit to headlamp of BMW i8 in daytime running light. Graphic of laser headlamp. Graphic of laser headlamp.

The main objective of the laser light is to develop a high brightness white light source to extend the visibility range of the driver. The principal is the following: it’s based on the use of high power blue laser diode that pumps a piece of phosphor in the remote configuration. The mixture between the blue, the pumping blue light and the yellow light produced by the phosphor is the white light. It is a broadband light it is not anymore a laser light it is similar to a white light LED. We heard that time about a new type of source used in the medical sector in Japan and we investigated actually this light source and we developed a concept between 2009 and 2010. At the beginning, we were only two and the team has been extended there. The main motivation is, that BMW always like to provide its drivers with the best visibility from within small and compact and well designed head lamps. This can only be achieved when we increase the luminance and the brightness of the light sources.

Wide shot, laser headlamp is sprayed by BMW staff member Peter Heinrich - BMW light systems validation - and placed in the cooling facility. Medium wide shot, laser headlamp is sprayed by BMW staff member Peter Heinrich and placed in the cooling facility. Close-up of laser headlamp being sprayed. Close-up of bottle being picked up. Pan from electronics system to headlamp. Close-up of electronics system being connected. Close-up of screen, temperature being set. Wide shot of cooling laboratory-BMW light systems validation. Close-up of BMW staff member Peter Heinrich typing. Close-up of screen showing graph of decreasing temperature (fast motion). Close-up of computer screen showing headlamp temperatures. Close-up of temperature display -40.2 °C. Medium close-up shot of iced over headlamp, functional test: turn indicator and high beam are switched on. Close-up of ice on headlamp, flashing. Wide shot of headlamp in cooling facility, flashing with low beam. Close-up of laser headlamp, ice melting in fast motion.

Wide shot of driving simulator, Stefan Weber and Thomas Hausmann. Tracking shot driving simulator, Thomas Hausmann and Stefan Weber. Tracking shot driving simulator, simulation from laser light to high beam. Medium shot from rear, Stefan Weber and Thomas Hausmann shown partially, driving simulator and computer screen in background. Close-up of computer screen with various light settings. t of driving simulator: low beam, high beam, laserlights. Medium close-up shot of Thomas Hausmann and Stefan Weber in the driving simulator. Close-up of Thomas Hausmann typing.

The visualization here in the night drive simulator helps us to see the customer night drive performance in an early stage of the development process. This helps us to get our innovations really fast into the cars, to our customers.

Medium close-up shot of Thomas Hausmann and Stefan Weber at the BMW 3 Series (high beam), glare is removed from the BMW i3 in the background, various shots of Thomas Hausmann and Stefan Weber with laptops at the BMW 3 Series and BMW i3, high beam assistant test. Close-up of computer. Medium wide shot of BMW 3 Series dazzling driver cabin of BMW i3 , Thomas Hausmann gets in. Close-up of Thomas Hausmann getting into the BMW i3. Close-up of Thomas Hausmann in the BMW i3, glare is removed. Section of BMW 3 Series, glare is removed from BMW i3. hot of Stefan Weber with laptop at the car. Nocturnal shot of moon. Shot from the BMW 3 Series with glare removed from oncoming BMW i3 Shot from the BMW 3 Series overtaking BMW 3 Series with glare removed.

The glarefree high beam assistant is a camera based system which detects the position of the oncoming car. The swiveling of the head lamp unit provides a glarefree area around the other traffic users. The focus of our development was to maximize the activation time of the high beam function. That means the camera based system in combination with the glarefree area of our light distribution provides a maximum of the high beam function. That means in night drives we come from around 10 percent to over 60 percent activation time for the high beam function.