Jeong-tae Kang / RCA Vehicle Design
moving light: lighting the future car cockpit
Lighting for car interiors has changed little since the dawn of the automobile. This study presents a new concept in vehicle lighting, as the driving population ages and in-car systems become more complex.
Since the first automobile rolled off the production line with interior electrical lights ‘as standard’, very little has changed. Designer Jeong Tae Kang, working in partnership with automotive components supplier Visteon, took a creative look at what could be done to facilitate better cockpit lighting. Most vehicles, from small city cars to prestige saloons, use only two lighting spots from the car roof and these give about a tenth of the light output of the standard desk lamp. With the average 55-year-old needing around twice the contrast effect than the average 25-year old to be able to read clearly and the majority of the UK’s car driving population becoming older overall, it is clear that this is a problem that needs to be addressed.
Kang’s research identified the three types of illumination most needed by vehicle users: practical (to help find that lost coin), emotional (ambient lighting to both reflect and enhance mood) and informational (to offer people integrated access to information on the move). The concept model arising from the project suggests how this might work in practice, based on the shape of a small two-seater city car which has an information band running around the interior and multiple individual lights around the cabin, each fully adaptable by driver or passenger to suit mood, task or time of day.
