Car Design Review 7: Myotek illuminates the future

At Myotek, a tier one supplier of lighting for the automotive industry, we aim to bring light into the darkness with automotive lighting. We’re looking to the future of lighting products and see an evolution of lighting designs that will be much more than illumination. They will be communicators of information, safety and accessibility.

Myotek’s main product focus is on fog lamps for passenger cars and the truck industry. Myotek is a transportation LED lighting manufacturer for vehicle makers in America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. The company offers services from design and prototyping through engineering and testing to production and prides itself on innovative products, competitive pricing and aggressive time-to-market. Our strength with fog lamps centres on styling and peak performance. But we also supply other exterior lighting for two-wheelers, Centre High Mount Stop Lights (CHMSL) and other lighting products for a variety of automotive applications.

We research and develop innovative lighting solutions across a number of transportation platforms including motorcycles, trucks and watercraft. In addition, Myotek also has advanced expertise in reflectors and optics, knowledge that we developed along with our fog lamps to maximise their power and effectiveness. Myotek has an Advance Innovation Lab of which I am the senior vice-president. The Innovation Lab brings together both of my passions and professional experience, as an advanced lighting designer of 28 years and as a photojournalist and professional photographer for more than four decades. The two careers have informed and enriched the other – you learn a lot about light being a photographer – and now I draw on both disciplines here at Myotek.

At our Innovation Lab we look forward into the future of automotive lighting and identify new opportunities for advanced lighting solutions in the coming decade. It is important to note that there are different kinds of lighting approaches being used in the automotive marketplace but we are completely focused on using that technology and combining it with other new emerging technologies. We think of it as taking chocolate and peanut butter, then mixing it together to create Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

The automotive world is evolving fast. On the horizon are autonomous cars, shared transportation and e-mobility. Although much of the talk in the last few years has been about autonomous cars, at our Innovation Lab we are focusing on electric cars, which are here now and present some interesting opportunities to rethink the face of a vehicle. One prominent design feature that has generated much tension in the automotive design world is the fate of the traditional grille. What can we do with it? No longer needed for radiator cooling, this feature is largely vestigial on an electric car. With our partner Covestro, we have taken this element and incorporated some amazing new integrated technologies into it. Our co-developed grille uses Covestro’s advanced polycarbonate expertise and a newly developed Myotek high resolution LED matrix display (that is automotive qualified), which is integrated directly into the polycarbonate of the grille, offering a beautiful approach to communicating information to pedestrians.

Along with that, we have re-thought how fog lamps could be used and have designed new state-of-the-art optics and reflectors into super-thin fog lamps and placed them directly into the bottom of the grille. There are other technology offerings like radar, lidar, cameras and some beautiful ambient lighting that can support the DNA and branding of a vehicle. Even traditional fog lamps present a growing opportunity. Long the core of Myotek’s business, we see these units evolving into a dual-purpose lighting and safety fixture. In the countryside and on the open road, the fog lamp can assume its traditional role, with the added advantage of incorporating emerging lighting and sensor technologies. In suburban and urban areas, where streets are partially lit by municipal street lamps, the fog lamp can assume a safety role similar to that mentioned above, communicating with symbols and icons to pedestrians and to other vehicles. These could be turn signals, stop signs and other graphics that project on the bezel of the fog lamp and communicate a driver’s intentions. These could be static symbols, or animated and could be designed in a way to enhance brand recognition and safety.

Other technologies we have incorporated in Myotek fog lamps are DLP projection, cameras, lidar, radar and thermal imaging. Our goal is to offer carmakers the option to house new technologies in the fog lamp space, which is less-regulated and more expansive than headlamps.

Another trend we are following is consumers’ increasing interest in interior lighting. Gone are the days of the dome light and a few lights along the instrument panel. Consumers are demanding stronger ambient light and accent or task lighting throughout the cabin. From door handles and window controls to cup holders and climate controls, consumers want task lighting that is either constant or motion-activated to make interiors safer and more accessible.

We forsee seats illuminated with the opening of the doors and in other scenarios too. These new lighting opportunities require more than just illumination. There is a need to communicate more information with light. Achieving this in a way that brings surprise and delight is the hallmark of a premium interior and one we think will be increasingly in demand over the course of the next decade. The demand for more advance lighting will increase within the interior as we move closer to autonomous and ride-sharing mobility.

Myotek has also developed a unique method of embedding LEDs in glass and polycarbonate, useful for a number of applications including EV grilles and CHMSL lights – the ‘third’ brake light you see on the rear windscreen of cars. We anticipate that embedding LEDs in automotive glass will find a number of applications for interior lighting as well, like embedding an array of LED lights in a moonroof to replace the traditional dome light. It would be easy for a successful company like Myotek to continue down the same road it has travelled – and illuminated – for decades. But you cannot cling to the past if you want to invent the future. At Myotek, we understand that innovation is born of the journey and the need. In our developments with lighting technology we try to emphasise creativity over knowledge in our explorations of the possibilities ahead of us. We let our imagination run wild, but with a purpose.

To distill it all down, our innovation is driven by a single quote from Albert Einstein: ‘Logic will get you from A to B but imagination can take you anywhere.’ This imagination is enhanced by the advanced technical skills of Myotek’s research and production teams who have proven time after time they can bring innovative ideas into reality. The future of lighting is so much more than lighting.