In this report Sara Sargent, our Automotive Technology Specialist, explores a wide array of in-cabin innovations from CES 2025, featuring both familiar names from InCabin and exciting new companies shaping the future of automotive experiences…
This year, walking Unveiled, North Hall, and Central Hall meant seeing health technology, wearables, at home health, and smart home. I noticed a massive trend in empowering the consumer to gather data about their health. There were hormone testers, sensors for heart rate monitoring, and digital twins that allow you to have a better understanding of how your body will respond to changes in the next 10 or 20 years. Some of the wellness solutions included little companion robots, screens that looked like windows, and a light to shine simulated sunlight on you. These solutions made me think a lot about the health applications we’ll start seeing in our cars.
I ran into our friends from PAVE, Tara Andringa and Katelyn Magney-Miller, who hosted an AV Roundtable with CTA and a series of PAVEcasts from CES.
This year PAVE expanded their US team and hired on Sarah Mele, another friend of InCabin and AutoSens. With such a stellar team, we’re excited to see them build on their successes from last year! If you don’t know PAVE, they are helping companies connect consumers with their automotive technology through education, a mission that is very important to both our Communities and PAVE’s members.Â
In this report I’ll cover a wide array of technology, from companies you’ve met at InCabin and companies who are new to us this year. Â
- Harman – Ready Care and LunaÂ
- Ceres Holographic – Displays for in-cabin NCAP standardsÂ
- Ottawa Infotainment – Custom Infotainment for OEMsÂ
- SunLED – Positive health benefits of sunlightÂ
- Continental and Trinamix – alcohol detection, seatbelt detection, improved consumer trustÂ
- Seafarix – Android to Linux and backÂ
- Delta – Seamless experience, thank you for Lenny KravitzÂ
They showed a large display in the car called QVue which was a Samsung OLED display, in the drivers line of sight, with a cluster based on real time needs and information. The QVue also showed the digital mirrors. Â
They do provide the SDK for OEMS to do their own UX design, and run agnostic of HW, navigation, ADAS, etc. What’s special is that the UI toolkit they have created lets them have a much better iterative UI development process. Currently it takes too long for OEMs, and this takes the time from months down to days for them to make a better product with customizable icons unique to the OEM. Â
Their HUD enables augmented reality views of objects projected up to 10.5m ahead of the driver, with HW and SW both by Harman. You’ll be able to find this in future models from Porshe and the Audi Q4 e-tron.
Harman AR views with destination flag marker on roadway
The next steps are to reduce the volume of it, I had no idea but these take up a lot of space we don’t see – this is 10.5 liters, and they are looking to scale that down to more like 5 liters, that will be very impressive!
I actually met the team from Ceres at our AutoSens and InCabin meetup on Monday night, so I was already very keen to see their demo after hearing more about what they do. I was very impressed with all of their demos. They showed different ways of showing information on the windshield or other glass. They have progress on SOPs with both German and Chinese OEMs.
Anti -distraction display Â
They explained that OEMs are looking to bring safety onto the windshield. Ceres demo’d a small LED projector display which takes up much less space than a HUD. For convenience you could put any content from your phone up on the windshield. They said that EuroNCAP is moving companies down 2 levels for distracting passenger screens, and their solution is not visible and distracting from the driver’s side. Or the passenger could find a restaurant, add it to the navigation, and pass the navigation view to the driver. Â
For when the car is parked the windshield could become a screen which is designed to be bright with a FoV of 47×100 degrees. Â
Barry walked me through the next section where they have low cost, micro LED displays which show a fixed image, like an indicator light.
Fixed micro LED displays
OI bill themselves as suppliers of bespoke automotive integration platforms. I found them at COVESA and then again randomly as I was walking the floor at the very end of the show. They are made up of 35 people and have been around for 5 years doing consulting prototyping for both HW and SW in the cluster.
They are made of a group of 4 companies who have been in business together for years and are putting their skills together to create this infotainment company. I met their chocolate chef, someone any good infotainment company has, and he gave me a few unique chocolate bars, both of which were fantastic! I was extra delighted to see our old InCabin friend, Sean Hazaray from Haze Automotive there at the booth as well, a partner in Ottawa Infotainment.
Their Dragon Fire domain controller includes Smart Eye as their partner for DMS integration. They have reference integrations with Bluetooth, navigation, voice assistant, telematics, and cloud. They’re working with partner, Crank, for a seamless user experience when it comes to HMI. I found it really endearing that they had a customer who was at their stand, he is Minnesota based like me, and will soon be coming out of stealth mode with an offroad EV platform. He gave a roaring endorsement for working with the teams who make up Ottawa Infotainment. These are the tiny details that I think tell you about who a company is and what they’re like to work with. To have a customer who is so passionate about them, and wants to see them have more success, they must be doing something right.
I met Ayhan Siriner, CEO of SunLED at Unveiled, where they had a stand. They provide an illuminator that mimics the positive effects of sunlight. In Minnesota it is common that people use these types of lights in their homes because it is winter for so long here, so I was really happy to see this for automotive, especially for long drives. This one is super small and can go on your desk, but is also used for automotive. I then saw both Ayhan and the CTO and Cofounder, Anne Berends at our meet up on Monday night again! Â
It was cool to see all the in home wellness technology that is now making it’s way to in-cabin. I think there is an easy link there for any medical use cases where regular intervals of observation gives more accurate results, or especially predictions. Even a common feature people talk about now, using the color of the lights, or audio, to calm or wake a driver, is a really useful wellness benefit.   Â
In their press briefing at CES they talked about their new solution for BAC measurement with Trinamix, their partner for biometric sensing. For this particular solution they are using spectroscopy, IR light to look under the skin at a specific band, where you can find the alcohol molecules. You can also measure things like hydration and blood sugar using this method.
They talked about an intelligent user experience where the system would sense the environment, the use intent, and then interact with the user. They described a system that could anticipate characteristics like that you will open the car’s trunk when you come out of the grocery store. Â
They also included their integrated DMS – single sensor CMOS behind the OLED display. They were using a 3D ToF dot projector for the seat belt detection, the same tech they used for anti spoofing the last few years, as it can detect the material properties. Â
I also saw their eTravel Companion for personalization and commerce, heard about their partnership with Google for distraction free interactions in the car, in addition to several other very intriguing applications for the interior experience.
eTravel Companion concertÂ
When I approached the last demo set, I said I wasn’t really interested in the parking one, but I was in the rest. He said he understood, and wasn’t that excited about it himself, but when you see it, it is actually really cool. I am easy to persuade into a demo, if a kidnapper wanted me, candy won’t do the trick but yes, I will get in a van with a stranger for a cool in-cabin demo…. I loved the parking demo and it was not like one I’d seen before. This automatic parking showed the driver it’s path planning, which gave me such a sense of comfort and trust in the parking. I have been in automatically parking cars dozens of times and this visual was very useful and clever. Â
We have put all this great tech in cars and I heard someone say, if a feature exists but never gets used, does it really exist? Engineers put a lot of effort into these features and the more complex they get, they less confident drivers feel using them, and the more they get ignored. Based on what Melissa and I saw in Paris, and what I’ve seen at CES, I think the next stage for in-cabin and ADAS is making the consumer more informed and confident using their features correctly as part of the in-cabin experience.Â
Continental is spinning off auto for which the hope to have plans in place for by September, and will launch a new brand by 2026! Â
Seafarix
Seafarix were introduced to me by the lovely Jeff Warra from KPIT at COVESA, and we met again after CES to get further into detail. They are a small team based in Finland and launched in 2023. They were approached by the OEMs because of their experience in privacy focused mobile OS and ended up solving the problem of running Android apps on Linux, and are now in the market in the Mercedes E Series with a win in the Asian market on the way. They have had a fast rise in automotive. Â
They also offer Linux support, legacy maps on Linux, and Linux apps on Android, so they can go either way. Â
They can give OEMs insight into their own SW system before pricy breakdowns occur, offered as a maintenance tool. They also offer an in-cabin AI box with Jolla, with optional router, local data processing and access to calendar and social data ensuring privacy by not hosting it in the cloud. Â
I did attend the Delta Keynote, and it was extra work to get in, and it was totally worth it. It took place in Sphere, apparently they call it Sphere and not ‘The’ Sphere which feels very weird to me but I am honoring their wishes. Fun fact, long time InCabin friend, STMicroelectronics, make the imager for filming for Sphere!Â
Up front admission: I am a Delta gal, I do love the overall experience, my airport is a Delta hub, and I still do become furious with their chat help agents when I have an issue, but they usually treat me very well. Â
There is a lot of content on LinkedIn about how the automotive cockpit/HMI experts should be learning from the lessons of the aviation industry. When I think of the relationship between a car and a plane, for me it is much more about the passenger experience. I don’t mind driving at all, and have done long trips all over the US, but these days when I am in a car I am indeed a very happy passenger princess, I’m also small so I often sit in the back. I do travel a lot for work, and for fun, so the transportation experience is important to me and does play a role in my decision making. That combined with my passion for InCabin means I’m an extremely observant passenger and love CES because of how many different models I get to experience using rideshares. My favorite new one was the Crown by Toyota.
Things that are important for my air travel loyaltyÂ
- A very easy to use app with all of my information in one place – receipts, new booking, upcoming flights, rewards progress, credits etc. Â
- Easy to cancel and change flights or seats in the appÂ
- Good rewards program that results in regular free flights, free luggage, and free upgradesÂ
- A place to charge my phone on longer flightsÂ
- A video screen for long hauls is a big plus Â
I think these same benefits will be important in the next evolution of the in-cabin experience, as OEMs begin to explore the area of monetization and in-car commerce opportunities, partnered with the capabilities for improvements and upgrades via OTA updates, I think it is easy to imagine partner apps and reward/upgrade incentives. Â
Many keynotes have a cool celebrity guest make a surprise appearance and this time Delta told us upfront that Lenny Kravitz would be performing at the end. I actually grew up with a Lenny Kravitz CD and that’s all I needed to hear. …I mean, it was important for my InCabin work to learn about trends in aviation.
Line opening to get ticket to Delta Keynote Ticket
Alright, so first you have to get a special ticket for the keynote, and to get that ticket you have a few different days and times to choose to stand in a long line and wait and hope you get one before they run out of that batch. Here is a video of the line opening. The line was there for maybe an hour before the ticket window opened. I was about halfway down the line.
The next day I arrived to Sphere to free meatballs, pizza, salads, coffees, and desserts, as well as free merch. When I sat down I put on my wristband and made friends with my neighbor, Leslie Pascaud of Kinetic Consulting, who was very familiar with Delta and gave me some added insights. Delta’s Keynote was hosted by CEO, Ed Bastien and was kicked off by Golden Globe Lifetime Achievement award winner, Viola Davis. Â
They introduced Delta Concierge, a genAI assistant, as well as improvements to their app. They also talked about a lot of partnerships to give them the entertainment and rewards advantage. The CEO of Uber was there and said they would have cheaper rides to the airport – and Delta will be offer 2x miles on Uber rides. I did hear that they will be dropping the Lyft benefit which is really too bad.
Fly Away, Lenny Kravitz
YouTube was there as well, they will be offering access to their content on flights, as well as a partnership with Draft Kings to be available on flights as well. They also had a futurist who talked about research into self-healing materials and sustainable aviation fuel. Oh yeah, and Tom Brady was there too, so they did have some surprises for us 😊. I wondered to myself how Delta landed on Lenny Kravitz, he is the coolest but was trying to make the connection…
Oh, there it is!
If you didn’t read the first and second CES takeaways then do check them out, there are more InCabin relevant tech in both. I had great conversations with people at CES! I am working hard with Kayleigh to get the most innovative, viable, useful tech demos to the exhibition floor at InCabin and AutoSens in Detroit, Barcelona, and Hefei this year. Speaking of Barcelona, if you’d like to speak in Barcelona for InCabin or AutoSens, the Call for Papers is open now, get your draft in by June. Â
To recommend an interesting company or to get involved, contact me for InCabin: Sara@sense-media.com and Kayleigh Pearson for AutoSens: Kayleigh@sense-media.comÂ
See you in Detroit! Â
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Sense Media Group brings together world-class communities of engineers, academics and experts in exterior and interior automotive sensing and vision, alongside related fields. Sense Media is the creator of the AutoSens and InCabin event communities, the AutoSens Academy training programme, and the AutoSensPLUS streaming platform.
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