InCabin USA 2025 was packed with meaningful conversations, cutting-edge demos, and strong signals about where the in-cabin ecosystem is heading next. Sara Sargent, a long-time leader in the InCabin space, shares her top takeaways from Detroit—covering everything from steering wheel sensing to anti-spoofing breakthroughs and the growing strategic interest in China. Read Sara’s Top Takeaways below…
All Eyes on China
People were talking about their positioning and plans for the Chinese market. I heard a lot of questions about whether we expect to see mostly Chinese companies or global companies, and the answer was that it will be global. A lot of companies are going to chase the Chinese market this year and are getting teams to pay attention to how to adapt and promote their solutions for that market.
Regulation, Validation, and Cross-Atlantic Insight
People were keen to speak to Adriano from Euro NCAP and understand what the landscape is in Europe, how validation will happen, and how that will influence the US market. It was awesome to have Alexandria from IIHS and Adriano together on a panel with delegates from Mitsubishi Electric, Tobii, CorrActions, and Will Simon—who is leading the charge on finding the right messaging for DC about in-cabin safety legislation. Getting these voices together on one stage to talk about how we address this next step was very useful.
Steering Wheels as HMI Real Estate
IEE showed a very nice steering wheel demo to detect engagement. We’ve had more and more companies talking to us about the steering wheel real estate—how a screen could be added, how we can use it to sense more about the driver, and how to make driver engagement with the system more effective.
Anti-Spoofing Gets Real (and Personal)
Trinamix showed anti-spoofing using replicas of their own faces. I had to ask—they have a cabinet full of all their faces in various qualities and skin tones. The face models run from $500 to $10K depending on quality. This is important to pay attention to—anti-spoofing is critical because the car will be personalized to you, with health and payment data, and we need to make sure someone can’t get into your car and access your information.
From anti-spoofing demos to global positioning strategies, InCabin USA 2025 highlighted the growing complexity—and opportunity—within the in-cabin ecosystem. With momentum building ahead of Barcelona and Hefei, it’s clear that companies are thinking globally, acting strategically, and staying focused on safety, personalization, and engagement. Looking forward to Barcelona!
Interested in exterior sensing technology?
With a pass to InCabin Europe, you’ll also get full access to our co-located sister event, AutoSens. Take a look at some of the AutoSens Europe here >>
