Chinese EVs Can Now Project Entire Movies From Their Headlights

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  • Ed Gordon
    Pro Film Handler
    • Jan 2020
    • 365
    • Seattle, WA, USA

    #1

    Chinese EVs Can Now Project Entire Movies From Their Headlights

    Chinese EVs Can Now Project Entire Movies From Their Headlights

    While the U.S. is just catching up on adaptive driving beams, China's newest EVs can project full-color movies from their headlights.




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    The U.S. just recently allowed adaptive headlights, which automatically adjust their beam patterns to avoid blinding oncoming drivers. It's a welcome development, but U.S. headlight tech is still way behind what's going on in China. Cars being sold in that country can now project entire full-color movies in front of them as if they were a rolling drive-in movie theater.​
    Huawei showed off the newest version of its headlight tech, XPixel, at the Huawei Qiankun Technology Conference at the Beijing Auto Show last week. The headlights now have the ability to project a full range of colors like a giant movie projector mounted to the front of the car. That means the ability to park your car and use the nearest wall to watch your favorite show or movie like it's some sort of personal drive-in movie theater.

    The actual XPixel tech that Huawei is using to underpin the new full-color projection feature has been around for about three years now. Vehicles like the Huawei Stelato S9 already use it, and what's particularly cool is how the tech is neatly tied into the car's driver assistance features—meaning that it can help to assist with lane changing by showing a guided path, or even direct pedestrians when to cross in front of the car. It's can also project interactive games for kids (like hopscotch).

    The new version of XPixel, which has full-color capability, will debut in the Aito M9 according to Huawei. The tech is also slated to come to a plethora of other cars, like the upcoming Qijing GT7 shooting brake and Luxeed V9 MPV.
    ​
    You're probably feeling a bit of envy if you live in the U.S. (especially after seeing how the driving features function). And that's okay, I am too.

    For decades, the regulations that governed headlights on passenger cars in the U.S. remained fairly static. The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards prevented new tech like adaptive driving beams from being deployed on the streets up until proposed changes were finalized in 2022—but by that time, the rest of the world had already leaped ahead.

    Now headlights are just the latest avenue where Chinese cars are packing in stunning technology at a much lower cost.
    Source: https://insideevs.com/news/794295/ch...ie-projectors/


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  • Harold Hallikainen
    Film God
    • Jan 2020
    • 1071
    • Tucson AZ

    #2
    Wow! DMDs, or how is the image formed? What about focus? Nice wide screen aspect ratio. And, with two headlights, you could do two projector 3D.

    Comment

    • Marcel Birgelen
      Film God
      • Jan 2020
      • 3619
      • Maastricht, NL

      #3
      Pull a bunch of those cars together and you've got a projection mapping show going . Every flat surface can become a movie drive-in theater?

      ​​​​​​Cool, but don't know how this really makes sense... I've driven cars with those kind of array-based adaptive headlights before, which are impressive in its own right, I don't know why I would need color and such a strong focus...

      Comment

      • Ryan Gallagher
        Film God
        • Nov 2022
        • 2855
        • Austin, Texas, USA

        #4
        As "fun" as it sounds... I'm expecting pretty low res type situation (but willing to be proven wrong)... I'm calling BS on the photograph... photoshoppped or AI. Seeing a video of one in action would be the real fun. Apparently DLP is the tech in use though.

        Here is as close as I could find in the US to a actual video of the M9 with the updated color projection:



        Here is a YT short of the previous gen white only, notice how most of the photos are taken without any floodlights on and from an angle where the camera perceived brightness will benefit by the reflection angle?



        That said, plenty of other cool features that are far more likely to work closer to as advertised. hah.

        Comment

        • Marcel Birgelen
          Film God
          • Jan 2020
          • 3619
          • Maastricht, NL

          #5
          The idea of projecting driving aids, like "virtual lines", warnings and other stuff onto the road surface sounds extremely counter-intuitive and border-line illegal. Like Ryan indicated, it will only work under the right lightning conditions, but what when you're on a busy road and multiple vehicles are doing this? Highly distractive, more dangerous than helpful and completely nuts if I may say so myself...

          Comment

          • Ryan Gallagher
            Film God
            • Nov 2022
            • 2855
            • Austin, Texas, USA

            #6
            Originally posted by Marcel Birgelen
            The idea of projecting driving aids, like "virtual lines", warnings and other stuff onto the road surface sounds extremely counter-intuitive and border-line illegal. Like Ryan indicated, it will only work under the right lightning conditions, but what when you're on a busy road and multiple vehicles are doing this? Highly distractive, more dangerous than helpful and completely nuts if I may say so myself...
            I think the "heads up" projections on windshield tuned to be custom for the driver's head position are more intuitive and efficient than blasting it out onto the roadways... if the software and glass coatings are any good... but I think even that stuff isn't legal in the US beyond a certain minimal encroachment to the viewing area for safety standards.

            But maybe we should throw out our rule book and start over in the US... it's not helping us any, with like the 8th worst driving safety standards of any country.

            Comment

            • Mike Blakesley
              Film God
              • Jan 2020
              • 2021
              • Forsyth MT

              #7
              The idea of projecting driving aids, like "virtual lines", warnings and other stuff onto the road surface sounds extremely counter-intuitive and border-line illegal.
              Not to mention downright stupid. Considering most roads already HAVE lane markings, what is the point of projecting even more lines?

              I do like the feature they have now where your steering wheel vibrates if you drift out of your lane. My favorite feature is the blind spot radar. It saved my ass in Denver a couple years ago....was going to do a lane change, had looked in the rear-view, but then when I went to move over, some speedy dude had drifted up close. Soon as I hit the turn signal, a light in the side mirror came on and a loud beep-beep-beep-beep went off. Accident avoided.

              Comment

              • Tj Hopland
                Pro Film Handler
                • Jun 2025
                • 264
                • Minneapolis, MN

                #8
                So does 2 headlights mean they can project 3d? 3d driving glasses?

                Comment

                • Ryan Gallagher
                  Film God
                  • Nov 2022
                  • 2855
                  • Austin, Texas, USA

                  #9
                  Originally posted by Tj Hopland
                  So does 2 headlights mean they can project 3d? 3d driving glasses?
                  No, two headlights means you have to spend hours converging them with tiny little adjustment screws for increased brightness to watch your movie. ;-)

                  Comment

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