Blue? Black? Red? The AMOLED panels will allow you to change the color of your car's 'paint' in seconds
La Jaguar - Land Rover is adapting the technology used in curved TVs and flexible wearable devices to develop AMOLED panels for cars, so that they can be personalized with the touch of a touchscreen.
The use of this technology called LESA (Lightweight Electronics in Simplified Architecture) will lead to the construction of car interiors totally without buttons. Inside we will also have large wraparound dashboards and outside body panels that change color (and will essentially be curved and huge AMOLED screens).
The technology, which uses printed circuit boards on non-metallic materials, will also significantly reduce the size and weight of onboard electronics, making it possible to add many more systems than would be sustainable today: including additional displays and solar panels for feed everything.
It is designed as a drawing, it is printed as a vase
LESA has a strong vocation for use with CAD software to design: on a sort of 2D "paper model" the designer of the LED system and systems, and then "folds" them in 3 dimensions to test their performance.
Once this design process is complete, the piece can be fabricated with the circuit boards already printed inside.
Jaguar Land Rover has already used the technology to create an aerial control panel prototype. It weighs 60% less compared to a conventional design and has one sensationally lower thickness: 3,5mm instead of 50mm.
Time-to-market isn't entirely clear yet, but the company has big plans for it. "Healthcare, aerospace, consumer technology and military industries. Fields that are already harnessing the benefits of structural electronics and our research is leading the way in the automotive industry by bringing it into the cabin for the first time."Said Ashutosh Tomar, Technical director for research in Jaguar Land Rover.
