SDV and Lighting: Where Light Speaks and Sensors Read

The story that began with components moves toward perception.
In the explanation of Ray Kang, CEO of ams OSRAM Korea, light and sensors no longer remain as individual functional components. They are shifting into interfaces that reveal what the vehicle sees and what it intends to do. This article follows Kang’s words to trace how lighting technology is expanding into a new role. As we move through the communicative function of exterior lighting, the networking of interior lighting, and the human-centered transition of sensing, lighting in the SDV era begins to be read not as style, but as relationship and communication.
 



The story that began with components moves toward perception.
The interview with Ray Kang, CEO of ams OSRAM Korea, began with a company introduction. ams OSRAM, formed through the combination of AMS in Graz, Austria, and OSRAM in Munich, Germany, still maintains two headquarters, holding onto two axes: “sensors” and “light.” Alongside the story of its 120-year history, its position in the LED market, its high-value automotive-focused strategy, and its emitter technologies - LED, micro LED, mini LED, laser, optical sensors, biosensors, ToF (Time-of-Flight) sensors - and even the ICs that drive them, the entire portfolio unfolded one by one. The explanation that it reached No. 1 in the LED sector in 2025 was also included.
At first, it sounded like a typical, solid company introduction from a semiconductor and components company. But as you listened, the center gradually moved forward. Rather than how many things they make, what stood out more was how those technologies connect into the automobile and what roles they take on. Light no longer remained as a component that simply illuminates, and sensors no longer remained as components that simply read. The two move together, forming a role that allows the vehicle to see the outside, read the inside, and communicate its state and intent to the driver, passengers, and people around it.

“We have long had this identity as a system partner. We have never considered ourselves simply a component supplier.”

These technologies do not automatically become finished products just because they are delivered to OEMs or Tier 1 suppliers. They require close collaboration from the early stages of vehicle development, with technical support provided, and the entire system specification must be built together from the beginning. The company introduction that had unfolded earlier was read again within this context.
The stories of light sources, sensors, ICs, and automotive lamps ultimately come down to whether the light and perception of the automobile can be designed together from the very beginning. And so ams OSRAM places itself not merely as a lighting company or a sensor company, but as a participant in designing the light and perception of the automobile from the earliest stages.


 
The reason ams OSRAM calls itself a “photonics powerhouse” extends from this same context.
If electronics deals with electrons, photonics deals with photons - that is, light. It may sound like a phrase easily overlooked in a brochure, but within the actual explanation, it is quite concrete. Typically, LED companies are strong in light sources, sensor companies in sensors, and integrated semiconductor companies in ICs. But ams OSRAM handles all three: it produces light sources, designs the ICs that drive them, and develops the sensors that detect that light. It brings the entire loop - emitting light, controlling it, and reading it - into a single system. Kang described this by saying, “There are virtually no light source companies that have the capability to develop ICs.”
In the automotive world, this structure becomes even more important. No matter how good a single component is, it has no meaning if it does not fit within the overall system. What lasts longer than specifications is reliability, and mass production, lifespan, and consistency in the field are even more demanding. The reason ams OSRAM still carries its traditional automotive lamp business (bulbs, halogen, HID) is not unrelated to this dimension of time. What a semiconductor company might have already abandoned remains here as accumulated experience in automotive quality and customer response.

“We really have to provide technical support through close collaboration from the very early stages of vehicle development, and the entire system specification must also be co-developed from the beginning.”

Some products enter at the engineering stage, while others must engage with OEMs even earlier, at the concept design stage. For example, technologies such as micro LEDs, which enable precise expression through high-density integration of ultra-small light sources, or ALIYOS®, which implements light in a thin film form to transform the surface itself, have no meaning unless they are discussed from the stage where the vehicle design is defined. As light in automobiles takes on more meaning, lighting is no longer a decorative element added at the end, but a factor that must be embedded in the structure from the beginning. As SDV and zonal/central architectures advance, the strategic value of light and sensing increases, and the position of companies that handle both naturally moves forward.





 
In automobiles, lighting has long been confined to two roles: illuminating the road ahead and defining the brand’s face. But the way ams OSRAM describes exterior lighting has already moved beyond that. The representative technology presented was the multipixel headlamp, “EVIYOS® 2.0.”
An LED array integrating 25,600 pixels. What matters is not the number itself, but the role that this number changes. While conventional ADB (Adaptive Driving Beam) systems used tens, at most around a hundred pixels, to avoid glare for oncoming vehicles and adjust illumination range, now tens of thousands of pixels allow light to move almost like a display. What has changed is not the precision of brightness, but the nature of functionality. Light has begun to carry information.

“Whether it’s autonomous driving or advanced ADAS, communication is ultimately necessary. It doesn’t end with the vehicle making decisions on its own. That information must be conveyed to the driver and to people around it. But delivering that only through sound is, in reality, impossible.”

For example, if the vehicle has already detected a pedestrian 100 meters ahead through LiDAR or other sensors, conveying that information only through an icon on the cluster or a warning sound is far less intuitive than projecting it directly onto the road as a visual warning. The driver can immediately understand what the car is seeing. The same applies to lane changes. Instead of relying solely on turn signals, the moment a light carpet is projected on the road to show the vehicle’s intended direction, exterior lighting becomes not styling, but an interface.

“The only way autonomous vehicles can clearly communicate with their surroundings is through light.”

Lighting is no longer a device that simply illuminates. It becomes a language that reveals what the vehicle sees, what it intends to do, and what state it is in.
This trend has already made its way into mass-produced vehicles. Even highly advanced technologies are not limited to flagship models; they are being introduced first into volume cars. Touareg, SEAT, Opel, and even A3-class vehicles. They can even be experienced through rental cars. This does not mean exterior lighting has become more extravagant, but that it has moved into the realm of practical UX and safety.

“This becomes a very intuitive new user experience (UX) for customers.”

Another possibility follows. Even now, colors such as cyan blue are being introduced to signal that a vehicle is in autonomous mode. In the next step, combined with sensors, when the vehicle recognizes a person standing nearby, it could communicate, “I see you,” through light. It could be color or texture. What matters is that light is moving from simple illumination to a signal of relationship.





 
When the focus shifts inside, the role of light unfolds differently again. Ambient lighting has long been treated as an emotional option - nice to have, but not essential. But when the number of LEDs increases from hundreds to thousands, the issue is no longer atmosphere, but control. It is no longer about whether the color is beautiful, but how to uniformly manage so many nodes at an automotive level of quality.
ams OSRAM addresses this by integrating ICs directly into the LEDs. During production, the brightness, color, and voltage characteristics of each LED are stored within the IC, and once communication with the MCU is established, automatic calibration occurs. This allows uniform brightness and color without additional calibration processes, eliminating the need for complex post-adjustment or parallel driver configurations. The RGBi (OSIRE® E3731i) product can achieve color through automatic computation in the MCU using a single daisy-chain structure. Interior lighting does not stop at becoming more beautiful - it becomes a networked system.

“The goal is like Android now.”

This leads to OSP (Open System Protocol). ams OSRAM is working to elevate this protocol to an ISO standard. Rather than a closed standard used by a single company, it aims to establish a shared foundation that everyone can use.

“We’re opening the door to create a public playground where even competitors can join later. When you have thousands of LEDs, matching colors and calibration to deliver the user’s desired color simply isn’t possible without a network protocol.”

Interior lighting thus moves from decoration to structure. The more it is integrated, the more control matters, and the more control increases, the less it becomes about a single component.





 
When shifting to sensors, the focus naturally moves from outside to inside.
In the ADAS era, sensors were primarily technologies for reading the external environment. But as regulations such as DMS (Driver Monitoring System) and CPD (Child Presence Detection) strengthen, the center of sensing shifts toward people. But reading people is far more complex than recognizing objects. It is not just about detection - it requires minimizing false alarms while avoiding discomfort from feeling monitored, all while meeting safety standards.

“To comply with such regulations, sensing itself must come first, not just the controller. If accurate sensing is not achieved, those standards cannot be met.”

This is why ams OSRAM emphasizes an integrated IR solution. DMS requires not only image sensors but also IR LEDs. And these IR LEDs are not simple light-emitting components. They must meet eye safety standards, allow precise output control, and enable monitoring. IR LEDs, drivers, photodiodes, and receivers must be handled together. Rather than combining components from multiple companies into a forced system, designing them as a single integrated structure from the beginning offers advantages in both accuracy and stability.

“If we provide IR for driver monitoring, we can also provide image sensors, IR LEDs with all required specifications, and the sensing technology to monitor them. Because we collaborate with OEMs from the early design stages, it becomes much easier to meet strict safety standards.”

The role of sensors changes accordingly - from recognizing external objects to forming the basis for accurately understanding human states and enabling the vehicle to respond accordingly.


   
ams OSRAM’s perspective on LiDAR remains consistent. Many OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers still find LiDAR burdensome due to cost and integration complexity.
Although many companies have emerged to produce LiDAR systems, most of the core light sources they use come from external suppliers - and ams OSRAM is among them.

“Most LiDAR companies are actually our customers.”

But ams OSRAM sees the core issue differently. More than price, stability is the greater challenge. Vehicles must maintain consistent performance in extreme conditions, from -30°C to +40°C. This requires the laser light source at the heart of LiDAR to achieve extremely high levels of stability. Thus, for ams OSRAM, LiDAR is not a future keyword but a technology being tested against automotive-grade quality and reliability.
What slows adoption is not simply economics, but whether the light source can withstand real-world production environments. Computing power, in their view, is already sufficient. The remaining challenge is to create light sources that do not fail under any condition, and to detect and isolate system errors quickly when they occur. This is where a structure that integrates light sources, sensors, ICs, and automotive quality experience becomes meaningful again.


 
Ray Kang spoke quite candidly about Korean OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers. Korean OEMs receive advanced technologies at almost the same time as German OEMs. It is not a market that sees technology late. But when it comes to actual application, the atmosphere changes.

“Korean OEMs are, first of all, very cautious.”

They are very cautious about adopting new technologies and often check whether premium brands have already applied them. As a result, technologies introduced at the same time tend to be mass-produced first by Western OEMs, while more innovative solutions are adopted more aggressively by Chinese OEMs, where regulatory constraints are relatively flexible. Western OEMs validate, Chinese OEMs experiment, and Korean OEMs adopt after confirmation. This reflects the uniquely Korean approach of maintaining high mass-production quality standards.
However, Tier 1 suppliers show a different character. Having endured rapid demands from global OEMs while meeting the high standards of domestic OEMs under pressure for speed and cost, they are highly trained and globally competitive.

“The Korean market may not be the fastest to adopt, but once adopted, it passes extremely high standards of mass production and quality. In that sense, Korea is not just a sales market for ams OSRAM, but a place where the strength of system partnerships is truly tested.”





 
What remains after the interview are not product names, but scenes.
A pedestrian symbol projected onto the road. A light carpet moving along the ground. OSP attempting to unify thousands of interior LEDs into a common structure. In-cabin sensing that must read human states without causing discomfort. And a view of LiDAR where success or failure is ultimately judged by stability.
Individually, these are stories about lighting, sensors, semiconductors, and protocols. But stepping back, they all point in the same direction. Vehicles will contain more software, but what users perceive is still light, response, and interface. What the car sees, what it intends to do, and how it understands the user ultimately appear in forms that are visible and tangible.
ams OSRAM calls itself a system partner. It means handling what light should say, what sensors should read, and how the two should operate within a unified structure.
Light speaks, and sensors read.

AEM(오토모티브일렉트로닉스매거진)

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