Lighting device for a motor vehicle

The illumination device has a semiconductor light source (10), a control and/or regulating device (14), and a storage element (26). The control and/or regulating device includes a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader (28) for contactless reading and subsequent evaluation of the characterizing information of illumination device, stored in the storage element. The control and/or regulating device delivers a measure of a light source using a sensor element (20) to detect an operating variable of light source in response to the read characterizing information.