Driving the Future of Automotive Displays with Quantum Dots
August 22, 2025
As cars become more connected, intelligent, and design-driven, the humble dashboard display has transformed into a centerpiece of the driving experience. From navigation and infotainment to critical safety alerts, today’s drivers expect crisp, vivid visuals that perform flawlessly, whether cruising at night or under the glaring sun. Meeting that expectation is no small feat.
At this year’s Vehicle Displays and Interfaces (VDI) conference in Detroit (September 9-10, 2025), Dr. ZhongSheng Luo of Nanosys will present new research on one of the toughest challenges in display design: maintaining wide color gamut performance under harsh ambient lighting conditions. His paper, Accurate Wide Color Gamut Reproduction in Automotive Displays Using Quantum Dot Displays, details how quantum dot (QD) technology offers a breakthrough path forward.
The Challenge: Sunlight vs. Screens
Modern automotive displays typically operate with peak brightness between 500–800 nits. While impressive on paper, those numbers can be quickly undermined by daylight glare and reflections inside a car. Even when screens are angled away from direct sunlight, stray ambient light can wash out images, dull colors, and reduce contrast, compromising not only the user experience but also safety.
Impact of ambient light on color performance: DCI-P3 coverage vs reflected ambient light for a 700 nit automotive display.
Research shows that higher color saturation improves driver reaction times, making accurate, vibrant displays more than just a luxury feature. They’re a safety necessity.
Why Quantum Dots?
Quantum dots, already trusted in premium TVs, bring a unique advantage to automotive displays. Their narrowband emission spectra deliver richer, purer colors compared to conventional phosphor backlights. Importantly, this precision holds up even when bright ambient light threatens to degrade image quality.
Normalized chromaticity gamut coverage comparing phosphor backlight and QD backlight. Both displays have the same brightness of 800cd/m2, the same white point at the panel level, and the same color filter.
Previous work has shown QD films excel in high-temperature and high-flux operating environments, passing rigorous automotive qualification tests. The new study by Dr. Luo and team goes further, tackling the next frontier: preserving color fidelity in real-world driving conditions.
Looking Ahead
The study also highlights areas for future work. Real-world conditions are complex, with multiple sources of ambient light and factors like veiling glare coming into play. Expanding simulations and measurements to capture these scenarios will further refine our understanding of QD advantages. But the direction is clear: quantum dots are the key to robust, wide-color automotive displays built for the road ahead.
Don’t miss Dr. ZhongSheng Luo’s presentation at the VDI conference next month in Detroit. He’ll share the details of this groundbreaking research and explore how quantum dot innovation is shaping the future of automotive user experiences.
