Discussion About Interior Ambient Lighting

[ree]

I can understand that, with such a speedo and such a night "design", you want to turn it off...
Don't think it is good, what if you want to turn something, like radio or anything?

And alone in the dark, driving a dark car...Brrr, no thanks. I prefer having some warm lights than a cold night with just the speedo flashing...

You're absolutely right, that's the reverse side - as I already mentioned, I can't estimate the "Night Panel", because I've never seen one in reality!

But I have to admit, that I really like the Ambient Light in our E-Class! It is relaxing, especially for the passengers, and also the driver can profit a lot. It adds a lot to the interior and broadcast a relaxing atmosphere (warning: I don't mean, that you fall asleep while driving )!

 

[bmer]

I can understand that, with such a speedo and such a night "design", you want to turn it off...

This function is called the Night Panel.

Don't think it is good, what if you want to turn something on or off, like the radio or anything?

And alone in the dark, driving a dark car...Brrr, no thanks. I prefer having some warm lights than a cold night with just the speedo flashing...

You have to understand the idea of the Night Panel is brought from Saab's aeronautics department. Inside the cockpit of a fighter aircraft there are hundreds of different switches and beacons but only the things that need the pilot's immediate attention are lighted. This is an ingenious way of preventing the pilot to be unnecessarily distracted as he obviously can't afford to do mistakes flying with amazing speeds and making decisions in fraction of a second. Also the green background lighting is inspired by Saab's aeronautic roots.

Most often used functions can operated through the buttons on the steering wheel. So this system does work in the same way as in the aircraft cockpits, it helps you to concentrate on the essential parts of driving and also prevents you being distracted by interior light reflections on the windscreen (and other windows).

 

[Mr. Mercedes]

This is one aspect of our X5 I really can't stand. The interior lighting is soo poor, even on the buttons. You literally are stabbing in the dark on many occasions. My lowly A3 does a better job of lighting. Our previous E-class and S-class were superb in this respect.

Has anyone seen Lexus night lighting? on the IS and GS they've used white LD's which looks very very cheap. It's also very poorly executed to the point of being useless.

So my experience tells me Mercedes is ahead of the game in the respect?

 

[coolraoul]

Yep, inspired by aeronautics...Not really the same focuses than ion a car. In your car you want to feel good, have a warm and lovely ambient, feel good. In a chaser you need to be operative, discreet, efficient.

Also, some studies proved that you are less inclined to asleep if the car is not dark but has some light in it (not just the buttons, but an ambient lighting), and that you react better because your eyes do not need to go from the hard lights of the frontlights in the dark interior of the car.

And I would not like it to drive in the dark, honestly. At least I think so, I never tried it. But in the E-Class, I spent a lot of time and a lot of kms, the ambient lighting is just brilliant.

 

[bmer]

Yep, inspired by aeronautics...Not really the same focuses than ion a car. In your car you want to feel good, have a warm and lovely ambient, feel good. In a chaser you need to be operative, discreet, efficient.

Also, some studies proved that you are less inclined to asleep if the car is not dark but has some light in it (not just the buttons, but an ambient lighting), and that you react better because your eyes do not need to go from the hard lights of the frontlights in the dark interior of the car.

And I would not like it to drive in the dark, honestly. At least I think so, I never tried it. But in the E-Class, I spent a lot of time and a lot of kms, the ambient lighting is just brilliant.

Like I already mentioned the basic principle works in cars as well. Still I think the intensity of the interior lighting is a matter of taste but too bright lights are distracting. Red lights are recommendable in the interior as red light in itself is least intensive. As a result it takes less time for human eyes to get used to complete darkness than with any other colored light. That's why they use it inside submarines and in the rear lights of basically all vehicles.

 

[CorpusCallosum]

Any pictures of the "waterfall" affect on the BMW 7 series (E65).. Its quite cool actually not as striking as the S class more subdued and i really like it

 

[coolraoul]

Like I already mentioned the basic principle works in cars as well. Still I think the intensity of the interior lighting is a matter of taste but too bright lights are distracting. Red lights are recommendable in the interior as red light in itself is least intensive. As a result it takes less time for human eyes to get used to complete darkness than with any other colored light. That's why they use it inside submarines and in the rear lights of basically all vehicles.

Are you sure it is because red is less intensive? I thought the contrary.

I know that the red light is the colour that human eyes can recognize the most quickly, this is why rear/stop lights are red: the response time is smaller with red than with other colours.

My bro has an e46, I have to say I don't like the red lightning. I feel it as too harsh, not relaxing at all. The blue in a VW is wonderful, but also quite aggressive. The green is quite cool, but my taste is more white/beige for the speedo, looks more natural and it does not annoy me, like the red does. More soft, natural, and easier to oversee.

Anyway, in the E like in the S you can regulate the lightning brightness of course. It can be very soft.

 

[Amo]

This is one aspect of our X5 I really can't stand. The interior lighting is soo poor, even on the buttons. You literally are stabbing in the dark on many occasions. My lowly A3 does a better job of lighting. Our previous E-class and S-class were superb in this respect.

Has anyone seen Lexus night lighting? on the IS and GS they've used white LD's which looks very very cheap. It's also very poorly executed to the point of being useless.

So my experience tells me Mercedes is ahead of the game in the respect?

I think the Lexus interior lighting with white LEDs is really nice. They even use white LED bulbs to light up the rear registration plate which looks nice and different. Personal preference I suppose though.

Any pictures of the "waterfall" affect on the BMW 7 series (E65).. Its quite cool actually not as striking as the S class more subdued and i really like it

Thats the first time I've heard of that. Would quite like to see it if anyone has pictures!

 

[bmer]

There are far more important reasons why the rear lights are red (psychological reasons, nature's warning color etc.) but I used it as an example to show where the benefit can be noticed.

Again it's a matter of taste which color you like the interior lighting should be. Personally I like red, orange and blue best.
I think the color BMW uses is same for all models, can't remember the name though. It was something like magma/lava orange.

 

[Mr. M]

I've read about Saab's Night Panel thing. Pretty novel, but I doubt I would be ever using it because I think I will fall asleep getting too comfortable cruising.

Yes, I would think MB is ahead of the others (just slightly) in this respect Mr. Mercedes - I remember in our W220, there was already some basic ambient lighting. But I think BMW has caught up pretty quickly as well - for instance, its 3er coupe now has the same waterfall lights on the doors as the E65 7er. I don't remember seeing anything like that on the 5er though.

As for Audi - I still haven't taken those pictures! Tomorrow, I promise!

coolraoul has brought an interesting perspective to the discussion - colour. I think I like blue, white or even orange/yellow... I dislike green (so 90's) and basically most other colours.

Good discussion guys, keep it going.

 

[Amo]

Id have to say my favourite is probaly the BMW orangeish light. I like the sort of warm yellowish/whiteish illuminations we see nowadays. Pure white is even better in my opinion. I dont mind green - then again I would say that, 'cause gues what colour the illuminations are in the Toyota. The dials are bright white and red though...

Blue looks great too, but I would'nt say I'm that keen on it.

 

[Cashmere]

Some nice pics I found showing off some good ambience. I will post some BMW ones too.

 

[Mr. M]

Mercedes' instrumentation... Unparalleled. Man, how do people take those kind of pictures BMW Power posted? Would wanna try it for the A8...

 

[Mr. M]

Took some evening photos.

Now you have some idea of how the lighting looks like under the door trim... Very clever.

Footwell lighting in white.

In 'City' lighting mode, the two rectangular lights will dim and act as 'lounge lighting'. It's very cool, but too intrusive and so we turned it off. It's better executed in the E-Class.

Beautiful Audi gauges. The needles could be thinner though.

In the door storage compartment.

3 LEDs below the rear-view wing mirrors.

Subtle lighting under the rear-view mirror.

 

[Mr. M]

Just took these more impressive photos.

 

[ree]

Thanks James!! The interior lightning of your A8 looks great. It looks awesome with those bright interior colour. Would be interested how it looks like on a car with black/brown interior.

 

[bmer]

Stunning shots, James! I honestly have to say as an overall package (not just the interior) I like the A8 more than 7-Series or S-Class.

 

[Monster]

wow fantastic photos James! I didn't know the A8 has 3 LED underneath the wing mirrors and inside the door storage compartment. I notice there is a little clear plastic cover thing on the door handle. Does that light up as well?

 

[ree]

I found these on flickr:

R-Class



E-Class



http://l.yimg.com/www.flickr.com/images/spaceball.gif
Nice, that you can see the Ambient Light here!

CL

 

[ree]

And VW interior - I personally don't like the blue light: