Vehicle lighting system with means for emitting a very high frequency coded luminous signal - Patent 7222267

Abstract

The present invention relates to a lighting system (1) for a vehicle comprising a front-left lighting device (22) and a front-right lighting device (26), each capable of emitting a lighting beam (222, 242), means for emitting radio-frequency coded lighting signals outside the vehicle (2), and means for receiving such lighting signals. According to the invention, the lighting system comprises a lighting device (26) arranged on the vehicle (2) between the lighting devices (22, 24), and means (38) capable of decoding the lighting signals received by the lighting device (26) to provide at least one value representative of a time shift between the lighting signal received by the lighting device (26) and the lighting signal sent by the lighting device (26) to obstacle detection means (40).

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to the automotive and optoelectronics field, more particularly to lighting systems for vehicles. Summary of the Invention

[0002] Light-emitting diode assemblies are commonly used in modern vehicles to produce exterior lighting devices such as headlamps, indicator lights, etc. These diode assemblies provide sufficient luminous intensity to provide regulatory lighting functions and offer a favorable power consumption ratio.

[0003] These diode assemblies also allow for the creation of luminous signatures unique to each vehicle model and are considered a future means for vehicles to communicate with each other or with road infrastructure using optical communication technologies such as VLC (Visible Light Communication).

[0004] The inventors have discovered that by increasing the bandwidth of light emitting diodes by equalization techniques, by using diodes smaller than 300 micrometers, or by a combination of these techniques, other applications, such as obstacle detection applications, are possible that require the use of specific types of control units (also called "drivers"), such as high-speed control units (or "high-speed drivers") or laser control units (or "laser drivers").

[0005] In fact, the bandwidth of a conventional 1 mm surface-emitting diode is about 5 MHz (megahertz), and therefore sufficient to enable luminous communication between vehicles or between vehicles and road infrastructure. However, this bandwidth is not suitable for obstacle detection-type applications. Such applications are still implemented optically in some vehicles using LiDAR ("Light Detection And Ranging") technology, which is based on laser sensors to analyze reflected signals with bandwidths on the order of tens or hundreds of megahertz. However, LiDAR systems installed on vehicles are very expensive.

[0006] The inventors have now made it possible to replace this expensive vehicle obstacle detection technology with a light emitting diode based vehicle lighting device that applies obstacle detection functionality in addition to regulatory lighting functionality.

[0007] However, these lighting devices are arranged on the sides of the front of the vehicle, and regulations stipulate a distance between these lighting devices. As a result, there are unlit areas between these lighting devices in front of the vehicle. Therefore, due to this restriction, the technology developed by the inventor cannot detect obstacles located near and in front of the vehicle, and it cannot be used in parking assistance systems for vehicles, in particular.

[0008] It is an object of the present invention to at least partially overcome the disadvantages of the prior art by providing a light emitting diode based vehicle lighting system, and an associated vehicle, for detecting obstacles in parking situations.

[0009] To this end, the present invention proposes a lighting system for a vehicle, comprising an optical assembly including a front left lighting device and a front right lighting device, each capable of emitting a lighting beam, the optical assembly further comprising means comprising a photonic emitter for emitting radio frequency coded luminous signals outside the vehicle, and means comprising a photonic receiver for receiving such luminous signals arriving from outside the vehicle; characterised in that the optical assembly further comprises a light emitting device intended to be placed in the vehicle between the lighting devices, the light emitting device comprising at least a part of the set of photonic emitters and at least a part of the set of photonic receivers, and the lighting system further comprises obstacle detection means and means for decoding the light emitting signal received by one of the photonic receivers of the light emitting device, the means being able to provide at least one value representative of a time shift between the light emitting signal received by the photonic receiver of the light emitting device on the one hand and the light emitting signal sent to the obstacle detection means by at least one of the photonic emitters of the light emitting device on the other hand.

[0010] The lighting beams emitted by the lighting devices are regulatory lights, such as high beam lights or low beam lights. However, they do not allow light to be emitted in an area close to the vehicle, located in front of the vehicle between two lighting devices. The lighting devices of the lighting system according to the invention comprise light-emitting diodes for illuminating this area and are coupled to obstacle detection means, at least partly implemented in the vehicle's computer, which therefore allows obstacles located in this area to be avoided.

[0011] In one embodiment, the Photonic Emitter is configured to emit wavelengths in the visible spectrum. As an example, the Photonic Emitter may be a light emitting diode.

[0012] In one embodiment, the photonic emitter and photonic receiver of the light emitting device are non-directional, i.e., their light emitting or, respectively, receiving surfaces are fixedly mounted parallel to the front of the vehicle, and there are no mirrors or other light emitting devices in the vehicle to change the emission direction of the light emitting signals emitted or received by the light emitting device. Indeed, the main function of the light emitting device is obstacle detection, which is easier to perform if the emitter and receiver are oriented in the same way.

[0013] According to an advantageous feature of the lighting system according to the invention, at least one of the lighting devices comprises another part of the set of photonic emitters of the light emitting means and another part of the set of photonic receivers of the receiving means. Preferably, two lighting devices of the optical assembly comprise a photonic emitter and a photonic receiver. The lighting devices are therefore also involved in obstacle communication and / or detection functions managed from the vehicle's computer.

[0014] In one embodiment, the Photonic Emitter of at least one lighting device is of the same type as the Photonic Emitter of the light-emitting device. This can simplify the processing of signals to be sent to the lighting device and to the light-emitting device to perform the obstacle detection function. Indeed, there is no need to convert signals between different formats and / or differently to suit the type of Photonic Emitter. By way of example, the Photonic Emitter of at least one lighting device is configured to emit wavelengths in the visible spectrum. Preferably, they are light-emitting diodes.

[0015] Additionally or alternatively, at least one photonic receiver of the lighting devices is of the same type as the photonic receiver of the light-emitting device. Thus, in the proposed lighting system, the lighting devices and the light-emitting devices are designed in the same way in terms of obstacle detection. Of course, this does not prevent each of these devices from having additional configurations for performing other functions, such as a lighting function for the lighting device and a light-emitting decoration function for the light-emitting device.

[0016] The decoding means may for example be adapted to decode the luminescence signal received by one of the photonic receivers of the lighting device and to provide to the obstacle detection means at least one value representative of a time shift between the luminescence signal received by the photonic receiver of the lighting device and the luminescence signal sent by at least one of the photonic emitters of the lighting device. The invention enables obstacle detection in the entire area in front of the vehicle using the light emitting diodes of the lighting device and the light emitting diodes of the light emitting device.

[0017] Advantageously, the light emitting device can also perform a display or signaling function, for example, the light emitting device can apply a communication function, for example by displaying or projecting a sign on the road, or even by VLC communication.

[0018] According to one advantageous feature of the invention, the light emitting means comprises means for encoding the high frequency signal intended to be emitted by the photonic emitter of the light emitting device at a frequency in the range of 5 to 200 MHz. Such a frequency allows the obstacle detection function to be performed. Preferably, the frequency of the light emitting signal emitted by the light emitting means is in the range of 30 to 150 MHz.

[0019] According to another advantageous feature of the invention, the light emitting means are configured to send an electrical signal encoding a first sequence of square waves to the Photonic Emitter of the lighting device and to send an electrical signal encoding a second sequence of square waves to the Photonic Emitter of the light emitting device. The first sequence of square waves is preferably different from the second sequence of square waves. Thus, any interference between the signal sent by the lighting device and the signal sent by the lighting device for obstacle detection is avoided. As a variant, the first sequence of square waves is identical to the second sequence of square waves. In both cases, whether the first sequence is identical or different from the second sequence, an alternative embodiment to limit this interference is: - the electrical signal encoding the first sequence of square waves has a power that is less than the power of the electrical signal encoding the second sequence of square waves; and / or - The first sequence of square waves is sent at a frequency different from the sending frequency of the second sequence of square waves.

[0020] Preferably, the photonic emitters of the lighting devices emit the same light emitting signal for obstacle detection. Indeed, the risk of interference between lighting devices is low at short distances from the vehicle. Furthermore, when the distance to an obstacle is significant, one lighting device receiving a light emitting signal emitted by another lighting device provides an accurate and sufficient analysis of the distance to the obstacle.

[0021] In one embodiment of the invention, in a lighting system according to the invention, the decoding means comprises means for thresholding a luminescence signal received by one of the photonic receivers of the lighting system to provide a thresholded luminescence signal, and means for correlating the thresholded luminescence signal with a luminescence signal emitted by at least one of the photonic emitters of the lighting system, the correlation means providing a value representative of the time shift between the thresholded luminescence signal and the luminescence signal emitted by the photonic emitter of the lighting system, and the obstacle detection means comprises means for converting the representative value resulting from the correlation means into a distance from an obstacle. The thresholding means in particular enables any luminescence component due to sunlight to be removed.

[0022] The invention also relates to a vehicle comprising a lighting system according to the invention, wherein a front-left lighting device is arranged in the front-left part of the vehicle, a front-right lighting device is arranged in the front-right part of the vehicle, and a light-emitting device is arranged in the front part of the vehicle between the front-left and front-right lighting devices. In this way, the proposed lighting system benefits from the available space in the front part for installing light-emitting devices that participate in obstacle detection in front of the vehicle. The light-emitting device and the front-right and front-left lighting devices allow the entire scene in front of the vehicle to be covered, thereby improving the driving safety of the vehicle.

[0023] In one embodiment of the invention, the light emitting surface of the photonic emitter of the light emitting device and the light receiving surface of the photonic receiver of the light emitting device are fixedly mounted parallel to the front of the vehicle, which is a simple and efficient arrangement that is suited to the location of the light emitting device on the front of the vehicle.

[0024] In one embodiment, the light-emitting device is positioned at least partially offset downward from the lighting device. In this case, the term "downward" is defined in relation to the vertical direction. This allows the lighting device to provide obstacle detection at a height position lower than the height position of the lighting device. As a result, the proposed lighting system not only allows the width of the scene in front of the vehicle to be covered, but also the height of the scene, i.e., different height positions, to be covered. In this case, the width corresponds to the horizontal lateral dimension of the vehicle, and the height corresponds to the vertical dimension of the vehicle. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0025] Further characteristics and advantages of the invention will become more clearly apparent from the following description on the one hand and from some embodiments on the other hand, which are given by way of non-limiting reference with reference to the accompanying schematic drawings in which: [Figure 1] FIG. 1 shows, in a first embodiment of the invention, a vehicle according to the invention provided with a lighting system according to the invention. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 shows diagrammatically in more detail the lighting system of FIG. 1 used to detect obstacles. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0026] According to one embodiment of the invention shown in Figure 1, a vehicle 2 according to the present invention comprises a lighting system 1. The lighting system 1 includes an optical assembly. The optical assembly comprises a front left lighting device 22 arranged at the left end of the front part of the vehicle 2, a front right lighting device 24 arranged at the right end of the front part of the vehicle 2, and a light-emitting device 26 arranged at the front part of the vehicle 2 between the front left lighting device 22 and the front right lighting device 24.

[0027] The front left lighting device 22 can emit a regulated lighting beam 222, e.g., a high beam or a low beam. Similarly, the front right lighting device 24 can emit a regulated lighting beam 242, e.g., a high beam or a low beam.

[0028] The regulating lighting beams 222 and 242 generated by the front-left lighting device 22 and the front-right lighting device 24 leave an unilluminated area z in front of the vehicle 2. The light-emitting device 26 includes a light-emitting diode that can illuminate this area z. The light-emitting device 26 is connected to the vehicle's computer by a computer bus (commonly called a CAN ("Controller Access Network") bus) and operates as a means for displaying messages by the computer. These messages are intended, for example, for pedestrians or other vehicles. The light-emitting device 26 optionally also functions as a VLC communication means. The front-left lighting device 22 and the front-right lighting device 24 can also be used by the computer as a VLC communication means.

[0029] The devices 22, 24, 26 of the optical assembly of the lighting system 1 according to the invention each comprise a plurality of Photonic Emitters 12 (shown in FIG. 2), which in this embodiment of the invention are blue light emitting diodes capable of emitting white light, such as light emitting diodes 121, 122 in FIG. 2.

[0030] The light-emitting diodes 121, 122 may, for example, comprise a layer of indium gallium nitride (InGaN) on which a layer of phosphor is deposited. They are therefore adapted to generate high-beam or low-beam type illumination beams. However, the light-emitting diodes 121, 122 of the light-emitting device 26 optionally emit only blue light in alternative embodiments in which the light-emitting device 26 is not used for display or signaling.

[0031] Similarly, the devices 22, 24, 26 of the optical assembly of the lighting system 1 according to the invention each comprise a plurality of photonic receivers 32 (shown in Figure 2), which in this embodiment of the invention are, for example, photodiodes 321, 322 of Figure 2. Of course, Figure 2 only shows two light-emitting diodes and two photodiodes for simplicity, and in reality the devices 22, 24, 26 comprise many more diodes and photodiodes.

[0032] The diodes 121, 122 of the devices 22, 24, 26 of the optical assembly form part of the means for emitting a high frequency coded luminous signal s1 (shown in Figure 2) outside the vehicle 2. Similarly, the photodiodes 321, 322 form part of the means 32 for receiving such a luminous signal arriving from outside the vehicle 2.

[0033] In fact, in this embodiment of the invention, the light emitting device 26 and the front left lighting device 22 and the front right lighting device 24 are used by obstacle detection means 40 implemented at least partly in software form in a computer of the vehicle 2.

[0034] More specifically, the devices 22, 24, 26 of the optical assembly are connected by the computer bus of the vehicle 2 to means 38 for decoding the light emission signals received by the photodiodes 321, 322, and these decoding means 38 communicate with detection means 40 via the computer bus.

[0035] The manner in which the lighting system 1 enables an obstacle 6 to be detected will now be described with reference to Fig. 2. For simplicity, this description is limited to obstacle detection using the light-emitting diodes 121, 122 and photodiodes 321, 322 of the light-emitting device 26; the use of the diodes and photodiodes of the front-left lighting device 22 and the front-right lighting device 24 for obstacle detection is done analogously. Furthermore, the light-emitting and light-receiving means of the lighting system 1 specific to the lighting devices 22, 24 are similar to the light-emitting and light-receiving means of the lighting system 1 specific to the light-emitting device 26.

[0036] The light-emitting means of the lighting system 1, specific to the lighting device 26, comprises a plurality of light-emitting diodes 12, as well as a source 10 of a square-wave voltage electric signal and an electronic control device 3 for controlling these light-emitting diodes, connected at an input to the signal source 10 and at an output to the light-emitting diodes 121, 122 of the light-emitting device 26. To transmit the light-emitting signal s1, the source 10 provides a square-wave signal with a width 1 of approximately 10 ns (nanoseconds) and a frequency of 50 MHz. To enable this signal with such a high frequency level to be transmitted, the electronic control device 3 comprises, for example, a pre-equalization stage, optionally associated with an amplifier stage. Alternatively or additionally, the light-emitting diodes 121, 122 are selected to be smaller than 300 micrometers, naturally with a cut-off frequency higher than 50 MHz. Preferably, the light-emitting diodes 121, 122 of the light-emitting device 26 are manufactured on the same substrate matrix and are arranged parallel to the front of the vehicle. The light-emitting diodes 121, 122 of the light-emitting device 26 can be activated individually or in fairly fine groups to enable characters to be displayed by the light-emitting device 26.

[0037] Furthermore, the electronic control device 3 comprises, in known manner, a "bias-tee" device which enables a DC voltage to be injected into, and optionally amplified by, the signal originating from the signal source 10, before applying the sum of the DC voltage and the square wave signal originating from the signal source 10 to the terminals of the diodes 121, 122. Applying the DC voltage biases the diodes 121, 122, thereby enabling them to emit the light-emitting signal s1.

[0038] The light emitting means specific to the light emitting device 26 enable the light emitting signal 5 to be transmitted at a frequency of 50 MHz and with such power that its reflection at the obstacle 6 results in a reflected light emitting signal s2 having sufficient light emitting power to be picked up by the photodiodes 321, 322 of the plurality of photodiodes 32 of the light emitting device 26.

[0039] The receiving means of the illumination system 1 specific to the light-emitting device 26 comprise, in addition to the photodiodes 321, 322, a blue light filter 8 for filtering the light of the reflected light emission signal s2 so as to allow only the blue component of this light to pass, and a lens 9 for focusing this component towards the photodiodes 321, 322. The blue light emitted by the diodes 121, 122 has in fact a luminous intensity greater than the intensity of sunlight, and therefore its analysis allows the reflected light emission signal s2 to be more easily distinguished from external light pollution in the process of decoding this reflected light emission signal s2.

[0040] The light emission signal s1 sent by the diodes 121, 122 encodes a specific sequence of square waves with a width 1 of 10 ns, which repeats periodically. The sequence of square waves is determined so as to easily evaluate the time shift between its emission and its reception, as explained below. It may, for example, have three square waves following each other, then only one square wave after 60 ns, and two square waves following each other after 40 ns.

[0041] The emitted light emitting signal s1 hits the obstacle 6, generating a reflected light emitting signal s2. The photodiodes 321 and 322 pick up the blue component of the reflected light emitting signal s2 and ambient light, e.g. sunlight, and send an electrical signal to the electronic control unit 13, which amplifies it and sends it to the decoding means 38. The electronic control unit 13 optionally comprises a post-equalization stage in addition to the amplification stage.

[0042] The decoding means 38 comprises means 34 for counting Nb photons received by each of the photodiodes 321, 322 as a function of time t and thresholding the intensity of the luminescence signal received by the photodiodes 321, 322 relative to the luminous intensity of sunlight. This thresholding corresponds to clipping the count signal Nb as a function of time t above a number of photons corresponding to the luminescence intensity of the blue component of sunlight, resulting in a thresholded luminescence signal s3. Indeed, since the blue component emitted by the diodes 121, 122 is stronger than the blue component of sunlight, such thresholding allows the component due to sunlight to be removed from the received electrical signal. Of course, in this case, the thresholded luminescence signal is in fact an electrical or digital signal corresponding to the thresholding of the received luminescence signal s2.

[0043] The decoding means 38 also comprise means 36 for correlating the thresholded luminous signal s3 with the luminous signal s1 delivered by the diodes 121, 122. These correlation means 36 determine a time shift τ between the thresholded luminous signal and the delivered luminous signal s1 and deliver this time shift τ to obstacle detection means 40 of the lighting system 1. The obstacle detection means 40 convert this time shift τ into a distance from the obstacle 6, thus enabling this obstacle to be detected.

[0044] In order to enable the decoding means 38, in analyzing the light emitting signals received by the light emitting device 26, to separate signals resulting from reflections of the light emitting signals emitted by the front left lighting device 22 and the front right lighting device 24, the light emitting means of the lighting system 1 specific to the front left lighting device 22 and the front right lighting device 24 differ from those specific to the light emitting device 26 in the source used of the square wave signal.

[0045] In fact, the light-emitting means specific to the front-left lighting device 22 and the front-right lighting device 24 comprise, for each of these lighting devices, a square-wave signal source and an electronic device for controlling the diodes of the lighting devices 22, 24, in a similar way to the square-wave signal source 10 and the electronic control device 3. However, while the square-wave signal source 10 emits a first sequence of square waves, the square-wave signal source of the lighting devices emits a second sequence of square waves different from those emitted by the square-wave signal source 10. That is to say, the sequence of square waves formed by this second sequence differs from the sequence of square waves formed by the first sequence, for example the second sequence may have two square waves following each other, then only one square wave after 80 ns, then three square waves following each other after 60 ns, etc.

[0046] The square wave signal source of the lighting device optionally emits this second sequence at a frequency different from the emission frequency of the square wave signal source 10. For example, the square wave signal source 10 emits at 50 MHz and the square wave signal source of the lighting device emits at 100 MHz.

[0047] Furthermore, the light emitting signal emitted by the light emitting device 26 preferably has a lower power than the light emitting signals emitted by the lighting devices 22, 24, since the light emitting device 26 is dedicated to obstacle detection only in the region z.

[0048] Of course, the invention is not limited to the examples just described, and many modifications can be made to these embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention.

Claims

1. A lighting system (1) for a vehicle, the lighting system (1) comprising an optical assembly (22, 24, 26) including a front-left lighting device (22) and a front-right lighting device (26) each capable of emitting a lighting beam (222, 242), the optical assembly (22, 24, 26) further comprising means (10, 12) having photonic emitters (121, 122) for emitting radio-frequency coded luminous signals (s1) outside the vehicle (2), and means (32) having photonic receivers (321, 322) for receiving such luminous signals arriving from outside the vehicle (2), The optical assembly (22, 24, 26) further comprises a light-emitting device (26) intended to be placed on the vehicle (2) between the lighting devices (22, 24), the light-emitting device (26) comprising at least a part of the set of photonic emitters (121, 122) and at least a part of the set of photonic receivers (321, 322), the lighting system (1) comprising obstacle detection means (40) and at least a part of the set of photonic receivers (321, 322) of the light-emitting device (26). and means (38) for decoding a light emitting signal (s2) received by one of the photonic receivers (321, 322) of the light emitting device (26), the means (38) being able to provide at least one value representative of a time shift (τ) between the light emitting signal (s2) received by the photonic receivers (321, 322) of the light emitting device (26) on the one hand and a light emitting signal (s1) sent by at least one of the photonic emitters (121, 122) of the light emitting device (26) to the obstacle detection means (40), A lighting system (1) for a vehicle, characterized in that:

2. 2. The lighting system (1) according to claim 1, wherein the light emitting means (10, 12) comprise means for encoding a high frequency signal (s1) intended to be sent by the photonic emitter (121, 122) of the light emitting device (26) at a frequency in the range of 5 to 200 MHz.

3. 3. The lighting system (1) according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the light-emitting device (26) is capable of performing a display function or a signaling function.

4. The lighting system (1) according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the at least part of the set of photonic emitters (121, 122) of the light emitting device (26) is configured to emit wavelengths in the visible spectrum.

5. 5. The lighting system (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein at least one of the lighting devices (22, 24) comprises another part of the set of photonic emitters of the light emitting means (10, 12) and another part of the set of photonic receivers of the receiving means (32).

6. 6. The lighting system (1) according to claim 5, wherein the other part of the set of Photonic Emitters of the light emitting means (10, 12) is of the same type as the at least part of the set of Photonic Emitters (121, 122) of the light emitting device (26).

7. 7. The lighting system (1) according to claim 6, wherein the other part of the set of photonic emitters of the light emitting means (10, 12) is configured to emit wavelengths in the visible spectrum.

8. 8. The lighting system (1) according to any one of claims 4 to 7, wherein the decoding means (38) is capable of decoding a luminescence signal received by one of the photonic receivers of the lighting devices (22, 24) and of providing to the obstacle detection means (40) at least one value representative of a time shift between the luminescence signal received by the photonic receiver of the lighting device (22, 24) and a luminescence signal sent by at least one of the photonic emitters of the lighting device (22, 24).

9. 9. A lighting system (1) according to any one of claims 4 to 8, wherein the light emitting means (10, 12) are configured to send electrical signals to the Photonic Emitters (121, 122) of the lighting devices (22, 24) encoding a first sequence of square waves, and to send electrical signals to the Photonic Emitters (121, 122) of the light emitting devices (26) encoding a second sequence of square waves.

10. 10. The lighting system (1) according to claim 9, wherein the first sequence of square waves is different from the second sequence of square waves.

11. 10. The lighting system (1) according to claim 9, wherein the first sequence of square waves is identical to the second sequence of square waves.

12. 12. The lighting system (1) according to any one of claims 9 to 11, wherein the electrical signal encoding the first sequence of square waves has a lower electrical power than the electrical signal encoding the second sequence of square waves.

13. The lighting system (1) according to any one of claims 9 to 12, wherein the first sequence of square waves is sent at a frequency different from the frequency for sending the second sequence of square waves.

14. 14. The lighting system (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 13, wherein the decoding means (38) comprises means (34) for thresholding a luminescence signal (s2) received by one of the photonic receivers (321, 322) of the lighting system (1) to provide a thresholded luminescence signal (s3), and means (36) for correlating the thresholded luminescence signal (s3) with a luminescence signal (s1) emitted by at least one of the photonic emitters (121, 122) of the lighting system (1), the correlation means (36) providing a value representative of a time shift (τ) between the thresholded luminescence signal (s3) and the luminescence signal (s1) emitted by the photonic emitters (121, 122) of the lighting system (1), and wherein the obstacle detection means (40) comprises means for converting the representative value produced by the correlation means (36) into a distance from an obstacle (6).

15. A vehicle (2) equipped with a lighting system (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 14, wherein the front left lighting device (22) is arranged in a front left portion of the vehicle (2), the front right lighting device (24) is arranged in a front right portion of the vehicle (2), and the light-emitting device (26) is arranged in a front portion of the vehicle (2) between the front left lighting device (22) and the front right lighting device (24).

16. 16. The vehicle (2) of claim 15, wherein the light emitting surface of the photonic emitter of the light emitting device and the light receiving surface of the photonic receiver of the light emitting device are fixedly mounted parallel to the front of the vehicle.

17. 17. The vehicle (2) according to claim 15 or claim 16, wherein the light-emitting device (26) is arranged at least partially offset downwards from the lighting device.

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