Lighting

After studying the DOT standards for lighting, it's no wonder why many auto manufacturers have huge numbers of engineers working on each aspect of a car, considering lighting is just one of hundreds of standards!

It is interesting to read through the standards however and see that the lighting configurations you see on the cars on the road are held to a very specific set of regulations/requirements, yet they are all so different.

One example is the Hummer H2. If a vehicle is over 80 inches wide (the H2 is a hair over 81 inches wide), it has to have lights on the roof at the outermost points possible, both front and rear (2 amber in the front and 2 red in the rear). It also has to have three lights on the roof centered about the longitudinal axis front and rear (like you see on a lot of 18 wheelers). Not just for big, rugged looks...it's actually required!

On my drive home tonight, I noticed how every car met the requirements but they do so in a multitude of different ways. This is very encouraging, especially as we prepare to begin our design competition! What that means for us and our designers is that we can work together to make sure that the requirements will be met, but we have some freedom to be creative.