OLED Car Roofs Developed by BASF and Philips

It appears that General Motors is not the only company eager to outfit cars with special features, since BASF and Philips are also working on something.

Philips and BASF are serious about using OLED in cars, though not just any type of OLED, but the transparent ones.

Of course, calling the OLED sheet transparent is not exactly accurate, since it allows light to pass through it only half the time, so to speak.

While active, it is opaque and acts like any other OLED screen, but turning it off renders it transparent as well.

That is to say, BASF and Philips want to make car roofs that let the sky and sun shine down through it during the day.

At night, the OLED can produce light, using energy accumulated by transparent solar cells during daytime.

In other words, this is not an OLED display for the top of cars, but a sort of window, if it can be called such, which also plays the part of light source when needed.

“This combination allows the driver to enjoy a unique open-space feeling while it generates electricity during the day and pleasantly suffuses the interior with the warm light of the transparent, highly efficient OLEDs at night,” said Dr. Felix Görth, head of Organic Light-Emitting Diodes and Organic Photovoltaics at BASF Future Business GmbH.

“This project provides impressive evidence of new possibilities with OLEDs, and illustrates the potential of Philips' Lumiblade OLED technology to help create innovative lighting applications that enhance people's lives,” added Dietrich Bertram, General Manager of OLED Lighting at Philips.

For those interested in other automotive inventions, the aforementioned General Motors Research and Development (GM) presented augmented reality windows a short while ago.

One can only imagine what will happen if these OLED roofs are somehow combined with the capabilities of GM's Windows of Opportunity (windows that double as touchscreens).