Audi Q9 Debuts World-First Curved OLED Taillights

Curved digital OLED panels on the Audi Q9 use 512 segments and ultra-thin glass to sharpen rear visibility and brake signal clarity.

Audi Q9 Curved OLED Taillights

Photo by: Audi

Brian Potter

By: Brian Potter

Oct 23, at 4:02am ET

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Audi's new flagship SUV has a lighting trick nobody else on the road can match. The Q9 uses curved digital OLED taillights made from six glass panels just 0.1 millimeter thick that wrap around the rear quarter panels instead of sitting flat.

Audi calls the setup a world first and previewed it when the Q9 debuted this past July. The hardware backs that up with 512 individually controllable lighting segments spread across those six panels.

Here is how the system works and what it changes for anyone driving behind one.

How The Curved OLED Taillights Work

Audi Q9 Curved OLED Taillights

Audi Q9 Curved OLED Taillights

Photo by: Audi

Conventional LED taillights sit behind flat lenses, which limits how far the light can wrap around a car's body. Audi's curved digital Q9 flagship SUV changes that by shaping the glass substrate itself to match the rear quarter panel. The lighting follows the curve of the body instead of stopping where a flat panel would.

The 0.1-millimeter glass substrate is thin enough to bend without cracking the OLED layer bonded to it. The result is a light element Audi says measures just one millimeter thick overall, built on technology the brand has spent a decade developing for production cars.

Audi was the first automaker to put segmented OLED lighting into a production vehicle, and the digital version in the Q9 pushes that further. Each OLED rear light connects to the car's electrical system control unit through a bus system. That link lets hundreds of segments be controlled on their own instead of lighting up as one block.

That fine control also keeps the curved panels easy to read from the side, not just straight on. A driver approaching from an angle in a parking lot or at an intersection gets a clearer view of the brake and turn signals than a flat-panel light would usually give at that angle.

Gallery: Audi OLED Lighting Technology

Audi Q9 Curved OLED Taillights

Audi Q9 Curved OLED Taillights Audi OLED Taillights

Source: Audi

A Light Show On The Road

The six-panel layout splits the lighting across the width of the tailgate and rear quarter panels. Audi states the outer curved panel on each side is the largest rear-light panel it has built. The breakdown lists 99 segments for each outer panel, 84 for each central panel, and 73 for each inner panel, which adds up to the 512 total segments across all six pieces.

Audi pairs the OLED rear lights with digital Matrix LED headlights up front, and the two systems work together at night. The Q9 can project a stylized turn-signal pattern onto the pavement ahead of the car, in sync with the dynamic indicators front and rear. Audi previewed this turn-signal projection feature on the smaller Q7 before bringing it to the new flagship.

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Audi has shared the panel count, the segment total, and the glass thickness as production specifications tied to the Q9's unveiling. The brand's own digital Matrix LED headlight technology already appears on some US models.

What Audi has not detailed yet is how much of that 512-segment system drivers can customize through onboard settings, or whether every market gets the same signature lighting sequence at startup and shutdown. Those specifics, along with US pricing, should become clearer as the Q9 gets closer to its on-sale date.