LG Display is showcasing its “Transparent OLED for Subway Trains” at InnoTrans 2022, the world’s largest transport technology trade show, where it will be used as a window replacement on a concept train for Deutsche Bahn, the German national rail company. The display is using the show in Berlin to expand sales of transparent panels to North American and European transportation companies.
LG Display has been supplying transparent OLED displays to transit companies in China and Japan since 2020, so we can already see it in action inside some subway trains in major Chinese cities (including Beijing, Shenzhen and Fuzhou) as well as some above-ground trains in Japan. Seeing the transition between mostly transparent subway maps and more traditional screens showing station layouts, it feels like we’re inching closer to a world teased by science fiction series like Star Trek.
According to LG Display, the technology uses specialized tempered glass to give its transparent OLED displays greater strength and durability to withstand vibration and strong impacts, allowing them to replace standard train windows. The company proposes to provide some useful applications for the technology, such as displaying maps, news and weather forecasts on the screen while transparent, thus retaining its use as an actual window.
The biggest concern, however, is that the advertising industry may be eyeing it, which LG Display has already mentioned as another use for the technology. Would it be particularly frustrating if advertising replaced the usually gray view we see out of subway car windows? Possibly, but there should be more imagination about how this new technology could be used on surface rail systems.
It’s wonderful to ride a train through a variety of terrain, watch the scenery fly by, and appreciate the world outside. Depending on the frequency of advertising and infotainment, this experience may disappear. We may already be frustrated with similar “innovations” that replace traditional windows with electronic displays, but ordinary windows are just as good. Just let windows be windows.
That said, LG Display says it is looking to expand the use of its transparent OLEDs in trains and subways in North America, Europe, Japan and China, so it may only be a matter of time before they show up in public transportation system near you.
