Hyundai’s Hidden Lighting Is Cool, Could Add Claims Costs

Hyundai has released details on its new hidden lighting system, which is featured on the Tuscon SUV model. Here’s the press info;

Hyundai’s Vision T SUV Concept, which was unveiled at the 2019 LA Auto Show. Vision T gained public attention at the time for conveying Hyundai’s new “Sensuous Sportiness” design identity and a bold radiator grille featuring futuristic Parametric Hidden Lights.

This design innovation seamlessly incorporates state-of-the-art lighting technology into the Tucson’s parametric jewel pattern grille, which forms the car’s striking light architecture. These Parametric Hidden Lights are a complete version of Hyundai’s “Hidden Lighting” technology, first applied to some of the company’s non-European models.

Hyundai’s first Hidden Lighting technology
In 2019, Palisade, Hyundai’s flagship SUV globally, became the first vehicle to be equipped with the company’s Hidden Lighting technology. Its long, vertically stretched tail lamp is connected to a matte chrome garnish. Usually, the garnish is just one of many design elements that adds a three-dimensional effect; but when turned on, it gives off subtle rays of LED lighting and glows softly. These early Hidden Lights were introduced primarily for aesthetic reasons, adding beauty to Palisade’s tail lamps.

Hidden Lighting Technology for Daytime Running Lights
Later that year, another model, the eighth-generation Sonata, became the first Hyundai model to feature Hidden Lighting technology in the headlamps. Sonata’s designers, also guided by the “Sensuous Sportiness” design identity, found a novel way to hide LED lamps in chrome garnish. They achieved this by applying chrome surfaces inside Sonata’s Daytime Running Lights (DRLs), which appear like a regular chrome garnish when the lights are off. This was accomplished through a “laser-etching” process, which etched the chrome over the LED at different intensity and intervals. Sonata’s DRLs provide increased visibility due to the wider area of light emitted by the application of Hidden Lighting technology.

LIGHTS THAT COMMUNICATE WITH PEDESTRIANS? YES, THEY’RE WORKING ON IT

The new lighting is essentially constructed of several layers, it also features built-in heat sensor technology, so the driver knows if the lights are over-heating. They look quite complex in terms of vehicle repair and of course broken lights are a typical feature in a low speed collision. So this tech, as urban cool as it may be, nevertheless adds cost and complexity for insurers and FNOL specialists.

Hyundai intends apply its Hidden Lighting and half-mirror LED technology to more models in the future. In particular, the new processing technique can be used for much larger lamps. The company also expects that its future self-driving vehicles will be able to send information directly through their lamps to surrounding vehicles and pedestrians alike.