Volkswagen is presenting its plans to transform traditional headlights and taillights into clever ways to communicate with other drivers. But the things is, one of the cars being shown doesn't match anything they have in production.
The taillight unit looked similar to the design of the Tiguan: geometric and pinched towards the center of the hatch. However, the shoulder lines, as well as other details, don't match up against the existing bodywork of any VW model. We've also thought about other upcoming cars, like the Passat wagon's facelift or the T-Cross.
But you know what has a Golf-like shape and Tiguan-like taillights? The camouflaged prototype spied in front of the R&D center in China earlier this week, presumed to be a Golf 8 preview. There's nothing in the press release that suggests these bright new taillights were developed exclusively in Germany. On the other hand, this also doesn't prove that we're dealing with the Golf 8 either; maybe it's just a study.
Whatever the car they are fitted to, these new lights will be able to communicate things like speed limits or upcoming dangers to other motorists. Furthermore, VW is using a Touareg to demonstrate the so-called “Optical Park Assist," projecting your reversing path onto the road.
At the other end of the car, the automaker is proposing micro-pixel headlights which will have 30,000 light points and high-output LED beams. They too can project information onto the road to highlight dangers or warn other drivers.
A far simpler yet somehow equally useful feature is a simple light bar integrated into the door handle. It turns red for when the door is locked, green for when it's open and blue for NFC smartphone detection... because keys are too old-fashioned.
It's not yet clear when the technology will go into production, but we believe it's around 2020 since that's when both the Golf 8 and the I.D. line of EVs will kick off.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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