6. Headlights and Taillights as Jewelry

Accented with chrome, blending bulbs and lenses, mirrors and LEDs, headlight and taillight assemblies are becoming more complex. Designers call them the “jewelry” of the vehicle and they work to model new technology with the skill of a Tiffany or Bulgari.

“There is a fundamental effect, a universal and ancient response people have to bright things. It is almost primal,” says Tom Peters, GM director of exterior design, rear wheel drive and performance vehicles. People have a similar effect to seeing wood on the interior of vehicles, says Peters. He designed the most recent Corvette and leads the team behind the new Camaro.

Ford’s design director Patrick Schaivone agrees. “Bending sheet metal is part of design, but you also have your jewelry items — like lighting, which is going to be bigger and bigger. There is so much happening in technology. The prices of LEDs are coming down. New technologies are becoming affordable that will lead in new directions,” he says.

LED brake lamps react more rapidly than conventional ones, providing a tiny, improved margin of safety. They also consume much less energy than traditional candescent bulbs.

“LEDs are going to be the wave of the future in both taillights and headlights, says Neal Oddes of J.D. Power. “They last longer and satisfy safety concerns. They also provide lights that look around curves. They also provide a jewel like treatment.”

Adaptive headlights that throw the beam of light at an angle when you turn the steering wheel to illuminate the road around corners are now on luxury cars. But the technology will be increasing affordable and designers expect that it will trickle down to mass-market vehicles.

In the future, Schaivone says the new light technology might enhance safety. “Say, you could show how hard the car is braking by the size of the light,” he says. Already, some luxury sedans have brake lights that get brighter during panic stops, when drivers tend to depress the brake pedal the hardest. “The new technologies are really inspiring us to redo the style of the lights,” Schaivone says.

Even the taillight of a family car like the Ford Fusion, Nissan Altima or Saturn Aura is an immensely complex compound of lamps and lenses. “Instead of hiding all that technology," Schiavone says, “we think, why not make it visible? A tiny slit of light may do what a big lens did before. Maybe there will be ways to personalize this technology with something like handmade lamps.”