Interview with Paul Henri Matha, Driving Vision News
“We need to drastically reduce the complexity”
A graduate of the École des Mines Saint-Étienne and long-time member of international expert groups such as SAE, GTB, and SIA: Paul Henri Matha.
Paul Henri Matha
Smart LEDs are transforming car interiors – but also adding complexity. Paul Henri Matha from Driving Vision News explains why the next big challenge for in-car lighting isn’t more innovation, but simplification.
With more than two decades of experience in automotive
lighting – including 18 years at Renault and five years at Volvo Cars – Paul
Henri Matha has helped shape the evolution of vehicle lighting from functional
systems to design-driven, intelligent experiences. Since joining Driving Vision News (DVN) in 2023 and becoming
its CEO in 2024, Matha has been driving the company’s mission to connect the
global lighting community and foster collaboration across OEMs, Tier-1s, and
technology suppliers.
At the upcoming Automotive Interior
Lighting Conference in Munich, he will discuss the path from innovation
to simplification in smart interior lighting. In the run-up to the event, we
asked him how connected LEDs, software control, and system integration will
shape the next phase of in-car lighting.
ADT: We are in the midst of a dynamic and disruptive decade
for the automotive industry. What do you think are the biggest challenges that
the indoor lighting sector will face in the next five years?
Matha: Smart LEDs and simplification are for me the biggest
challenges for the next five years. Interior lighting was quite nothing 20
years ago – one reading lamp, one glove lamp, one foot lamp. Five euros per
car. That’s it. With the transition from bulbs to LEDs, possibilities have
exploded, and what was a dream before for designers is now reality. From
functional lighting, interior lighting has evolved into backlighting and
interactive lighting. User experience is now the main focus, and interior
lighting is a big part of it. For that, you need software development, LED
control one by one, and intelligent ECUs to interface with ADAS, vehicle
behavior, or driver behavior. Then, what do we do? We have designed these new
features with huge complexity. We can see vehicles with more than €100 interior
lighting setups, some premium cars with more than €1,000 – and it is continuing
to increase with the growing importance of the interior in the era of
self-driving cars. I think it is time now for simplification. There is no
standard protocol for interior lighting; everybody is developing their own
solution. We need to drastically reduce the complexity, make it simpler, and
then more affordable. This is a big challenge for our industry.
You bring experience from Renault, Volvo and various
international expert groups. How do these perspectives shape your role at DVN
today?
In my former role, I was trying to define the needs from a
customer perspective, then to define the architecture, and then the lamp
specification. With DVN, I see that all OEMs are trying to define the need. And
this job is not easy because there are multiple solutions and hypotheses. With
DVN, I see dozens of solutions, ideas, and the complexity to develop them. In
an environment where we must go faster and reduce D&D costs, we need to
simplify the different solutions and work all together to converge. I think the
AILC conference is a good opportunity for that.
How do you see DVN's role in steering the industry
dialogue around indoor lighting – and what added value can DVN bring to the
AILC community?
With DVN, we gather the overall lighting community –
exterior and interior – all over the world. Everybody has the same challenges.
I was in the USA last month, and Smart LEDs are coming there too, a bit later
compared to Europe, but with strong interest. In China, they are really
advanced – interior lighting is already interacting with music, voice, steering
wheel force, and more for many years. With SDV, software allocation is changing
from Tier 1 ownership to OEM ownership. That is extending possibilities with
over-the-air (OTA) updates and direct interaction with phones or interior
displays. This is a revolution that is coming to our industry. We need to be
prepared and think about what we can do, how, and in an efficient manner. This
is, for me, the main challenge. Everything is possible – so do it in an
intelligent way. Collaboration between OEM, Tier 1, and Tier 2 is the key. When
I say OEM, I mean the lighting team, UX team, interior trim team, cockpit team.
Same for Tier 1 (trim, cockpit, lighting players) and Tier 2 (LED suppliers,
LED IC suppliers, SW protocol providers, etc.).
