Failsafe Lighting Increases Safety at Night

摘要

Highly complex systems ensure the best possible light on and in cars. However, if they are faulty and the vehicle light fails, this can endanger people. Continental demonstrates how an LED driver detects the failure of the electronics and still ensures the function - or warns the person driving in time. If the lights suddenly fail while driving at night on a dark country road, it is unpleasant for the driver and other road users, and dangerous as well: The vehicle is thus almost invisible. In the past, the cause of a light failure was obviously a burned-out light bulb. Nowadays, however, the lighting system is so complex that just one of many functions can cause it to fail. This is because these functions that allow the driver to see and be seen better go hand in hand with growing complexity, which implies conditions that are difficult to predict. It is therefore all the more important that safety-relevant functions are maintained even in the event of a lighting system failure. Standards for functional safety, such as ISO 26262, stipulate that sufficient illumination of the road must be guaranteed - even after a system failure. The prerequisites for this are regular checks and a precise supply of the required current to the Light-emitting Diodes (LEDs). To guarantee this continuous and consistent performance of the lighting system, Continental's lighting experts have developed the Celsius LED driver.