"Lasers are more efficient and offer a more natural white light"

BMW Laser Headlights Slice Through the Dark

...The field is blowing open, Rudy and Nakamura say. Beyond cars, projectors, and displays, expect to see uses in cellphone “pico” projector displays and future head-mounted systems, such as those now used in Google Glass. Lasers may even end up lighting our homes, offices, stadiums—you name it.

For general lighting, what makes the lasers attractive is that they can be packed much more densely on a chip than LEDs can. Laser-based lights would not only be more energy efficient on a dollars-per-lumen basis but also more flexible, able to work as spotlights or floodlights at the flick of a switch. If costs continue to fall, Rudy says, laser lights could make the leap to general use in roughly 10 years...

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...BMW intends to introduce the laser-based system on its 2014 i8 plug-inhybrid sports car. As with any plug-in vehicle, the i8 has a particular need to conserve battery electricity for propulsion, as well as for steering assist, entertainment, and heating and cooling. Finding small savings everywhere—even on the order of mere watts—translates directly into more miles of driving range.

Unlike slow-starting, single-brightness HIDs, the laser lights switch on in milliseconds and instantly go to 100 percent illumination. Easy to package in motorized modules, space-saving lasers “offer huge advantages for today’s projection systems,” Levering says.

The full article is very interesting!

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