Method and system for vehicular LIDAR and communication utilizing a vehicle head light and/or taillight and communicating with vehicle subsystems

A system for measuring a distance between a vehicle and one or more objects and utilizing distance measurements, comprising:

• a modulator in the vehicle configured to generate a modulation signal;
• a vehicle headlight or taillight LED driver assembly configured to generate a modulated light emitting diode (LED) transmission signal, based at least in part on the modulation signal;
• a vehicle LED headlight or taillight assembly configured to transmit a plurality of light beams, based at least in part on the generated modulated LED transmission signal;
• one or vehicle lens assembly and a camera configured to capture a reflection of the plurality of light beams off the one or more objects, the camera including an array of pixel sensors and being positioned on the vehicle;
• the camera and the array of pixel sensors to communicate a series of measurements representing the captured plurality of light beam reflections;
• a time-of-flight sensor module configured to receive the series of measurements and to calculate time of flight measurements between the vehicle LED headlight or taillight assembly and the one or more objects, based at least in part on the series of measurements;
• and
• a depth processor module, configured to calculate distances between the vehicle LED headlight or taillight assembly and the one or more objects based on the time-of-flight measurements and to transmit the calculated distances to one or more vehicle subsystems or components.

A system of communicating between a first vehicle and a second vehicle utilizing vehicle light-emitting diode (LED) headlight or taillight assemblies, comprising:

• a first vehicle encoder configured to encode a vehicle data transmission from a first vehicle, the vehicle data transmission including communications to one or more second vehicle subsystems;
• a modulator configured to generate a modulation signal based on the encoded vehicle data transmission;
• a first vehicle LED driver module configured to generate a modulated LED data transmission signal, based at least in part on the modulation signal representative of the encoded vehicle data transmission, the modulated LED data transmission signal to modulate an intensity of light beams;
• a first vehicle LED headlight or taillight assembly configured to transmit a plurality of light beams, utilizing, based at least in part on the generated modulated LED data transmission signal;
• one or more second vehicle light sensors positioned on the second vehicle configured to detect an intensity of the plurality of light beams transmitted from the first vehicle LED headlight or taillight assembly, the one or more second vehicle light sensors configured to generate a data transmission signal representative of the detected intensity of the plurality of light beams;
• a second vehicle demodulator module configured to demodulate the data transmission signal representative of the detected intensity of the plurality of light beams and generate a demodulated data transmission signal;
• and
• a second vehicle decoder configured to decode the demodulated data transmission signal to obtain or generate the vehicle data transmission of the first vehicle and to send the vehicle data transmission to the one or more second vehicle subsystems.