This absolutely exhaustive collection of headlights and taillights from the Geneva Motor Show 2018 paints a pretty accurate picture of how we’ve moved on from traditional lighting to designs that are much more expressive and state-of-the-art… because that’s what cars are moving towards. Being entities of transportation with a personality that isn’t just visual, but intangibly humane too. These cars come with high-end AI integration, allowing you to interact with the car as you would with a human. The expressive headlights almost look eye-like in some cases, allowing the car to look anywhere from friendly to superior. While the headlights take the expression of the eye, it’s up to the taillight to convey a sense of aerodynamics and speed. Taillights are usually dominated by horizontal or slanted lines, giving the car a sense of direction and speed, almost looking like a motion blur of red.

A lot of the cars explore edge-lighting to give you a slim headlamp/taillamp with an almost logo-esque, iconic, defined look. Gone are the days of the circular headlight, or the one with the traditional bulb+reflector setup. The headlights of 2018 seem to be on the verge of becoming just an ornamental feature with no proper use (we’re even seeing an increased adoption of blue lighting over white), as cars move towards a self-driving future where the driver doesn’t need to see what’s a 100 feet ahead of him/her. The cars that DO retain the circular headlight (like the Honda EV and the Toyota I-Concept) do so to allow the car to look friendly and approachable… a personality-type usually reserved for the experimental car-sharing system.

Screens/pixels also start to make their appearances on the front of the car (Honda EV Concept, the Mercedes EQ Concept, and the incredibly futuristic Toyota I-Concept), giving the vehicle emotional depth and a little more dynamism.

Picture Credits: Pablo Doldán