They say everything is cyclical—fashion, music, pop culture. The same is true with car design. Hyundai popularized the retro-fantastic '8-bit' styling on its modern EVs, while Honda is on a mission to revive the long-lost wedge.
One thing we haven't seen return, though, are pop-up headlights. The once-ubiquitous design element quickly faded into the background as automakers moved to sleeker, simpler light fixtures focused more on aerodynamic efficiency. What a shame.
With so many other retro elements returning to modern cars, though, why can't pop-up headlights also make a comeback?
First, some history.
The first pop-up headlights date back to 1935. Cord debuted the 810 prototype at the New York Auto Show, touting a technology never before seen. Hidden on either of the exterior fenders were headlight fixtures that "popped up" with a few vigorous twists of a dashboard-mounted crank.
Alfa Romeo would introduce pop-up headlights on the production 8C 2900A Berlinetta just a year later in 1936, and the Buick Y-Job concept would follow in 1938. But it wasn't until 1962 that pop-up headlights made their way into the mainstream on the Lotus Elan, which ditched the manually operated crank for the first vacuum-operated pop-ups.
Automakers would adopt the technology quickly thereafter, and pop-up headlights boomed in popularity in the US throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Sadly, the last production cars to have pop-up headlights in the US were the Lotus Esprit, ironically enough, and the Chevrolet C5 Corvette. Both of which ended production in 2005, taking pop-ups with them.
As with anything good and fun, government regulations all but put a stop to pop-ups. But they weren't necessarily banned.
Instead, regulators approved more aerodynamic headlight designs as opposed to the classic round, sealed beams, which meant automakers could save time and money by affixing sleeker, smaller fixtures to the front ends of their vehicles as opposed to fussy, often-complex pop-up units. Pedestrian protection laws globally also meant that anything protruding from the top of a vehicle's hood was a big no-no.
But in the US, at least, pop-up headlights aren't explicitly banned. So why don't we see more of them? Especially if there's a burgeoning demand for the good ol' days of car design.
Audi has been at the forefront of lighting technology for more than a decade. They pioneered the adaptive Matrix LED headlight for Europe in 2013 and continue to evolve the technology.
Just recently, Audi debuted the new Q3 SUV with updated Digital Matrix LED headlights featuring micro-LEDs with semiconductors that are thinner than a hair. The man behind the implementation of that technology is Dr. Michael Kruppa, who's been the head of headlight development at Audi for a number of years.
Even though Audi has never made a single production car with pop-up headlights (almost unbelievably), Kruppa knows as much as anyone about modern lighting technology.
"The most important point to understand is that everything we do is function-driven," Kruppa tells me. "[The headlights] always come from a very emotional perspective. They want to give the whole car a unique appearance, even if the light isn't illuminated."
At Audi, engineers work hand-in-hand with designers to create light fixtures that are as functional as they are beautiful, he says. But with innovation comes roadblocks; getting some specific lighting elements to market is no easy task.
It took years for regulators to approve Audi's use of adaptive matrix lighting technology in Europe and other markets. In the US, meanwhile, similar technology is only now hitting the road. Rivian is among the first automakers to get its adaptive lighting technology approved.
"[We] had to prove that [matrix LEDs] were robust enough," Kruppa says of regulators. "It was very important to convince the regulators that there is no glare for upcoming traffic… We went for test drives with them to show how the systems worked on the road. Based on this feedback, we were also able to understand their fears, because regulation is quite old-fashioned."
That's all to say: lighting technology is extremely complicated. Pop-up headlights would undoubtedly further complicate the matter.
"If you really want to make [the headlights] disappear completely, it's quite difficult," Kruppa says. "Because in the end, you need them to have a free, open perspective for use at night. At the moment, the big problem is the mechanics and all the additional parts you would have to integrate. So you make the headlamps even bigger, you make them heavier, and our focus, really… is not really having additional mechanical movements."
It makes sense. Adding a mechanical function to a feature that doesn’t already require one would be a step backward. Not to mention the added costs associated with slapping a piece of sheet metal or carbon fiber to the front of a bumper, and the potential interference with the many safety systems required on modern cars. Plus, there isn’t even much room for a pop-up function at all.
"The space in front of the car is really limited," he says, "so you don't have a lot of empty space where you can move a lid or where you can put a mechanical part that completely disappears. So that's the reason why we are not focusing on that at the moment."
'If you really want to make [the headlights] disappear completely, it's quite difficult.'
But that’s not to say companies haven’t tried hiding their headlights. We just haven’t noticed.
A big, modern trend is the split headlight—that is, a two-piece light fixture with an LED running light near the hood line and a larger headlight lower down on the bumper. The new Q3 has it, as do so many modern SUVs. As Kruppa notes, the split headlight was developed, in large part, as a way of “hiding” the main headlight housing so that the focus is drawn to the upper LED. And you can see that on the latest Q3.
"The main focus [with split headlights] really is aesthetics," he says. "Designers focus on the daytime conditions; You're only using the daytime running light… You still have to fulfill legal requirements, though, which means you need a low-beam and a high-beam."
"The bezels and polymer pieces surrounding the lower headlights were created so that if they’re not on, you don’t see them, because you're attracted to the daytime running light."
Love them or hate them, split headlights are, largely, an evolution of the pop-up.
But for the most part, the dream of a new car with pop-up headlights is largely dashed. There are some outliers, like the coachbuilt Ares Panther and the Mazda Iconic SP concept. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that we'll ever see another mass-produced modern vehicle with old-school light fixtures.
For Audi specifically, the distinct lighting signature of its Matrix LEDs does offer shades of nostalgia. The shape and function harken back, in some ways, to the original R8 and TT. But for Kruppa, he’s more focused on the future of lighting design, not necessarily the past.
"I think the biggest contribution we will see in the future from lighting is taking over more responsibilities in terms of communication," he says, pointing specifically to things like autonomous driving and pedestrian safety.
"Light will create some kind of touch point from the exterior… creating a sense of safety. This is what we strongly believe will happen in the future, whether we need 10 years, I don't know. But this is definitely the outlook."
