We spoke to Carmen Pătrașcu, who leads Tobii‘s interior sensing Sales and Marketing, about what comes after the world’s first single-camera DMS+OMS solution reaches the road, and how broader adoption can open the next chapter of interior sensing.
As Head of Sales and Marketing, Carmen works where Autosense technology meets the market. Her focus is not only on turning complex engineering into a clear proposition, but also on understanding what different OEMs and Tier 1s need to move from interest to implementation.
You have brought single-camera DMS+OMS to the road. What is the next difficult problem to solve?
Adoption. Technology can be advanced, validated, and ready for production, but that does not make it easy for every organization to use.
OEMs and Tier 1s do not all operate in the same way. They have different software architectures, engineering capabilities, development timelines, preferred system configurations (including both camera and ECU), validation processes, and levels of control they want to retain. Some want a complete solution with a clear and predictable path to integration. Others have strong internal teams and want greater freedom to shape the implementation around their own architecture. Some are already far along but become blocked by specific corner cases data, or validation challenge.
This means the next phase is not simply about adding another feature. It is about removing the barriers that prevent proven technology from spreading.
Different customers may want different levels of control. How do you create that flexibility without asking them to rebuild everything from the beginning?
Flexibility should not mean returning to zero.
Over the past five years, we have accumulated much more than a software package. We have developed production code, engineering expertise, validation methods, integration experience, development tools, data infrastructure, and a deep understanding of the corner cases that appear in real vehicles.
Different customers need different parts of that capability.
For some, the right answer is a complete, production-ready solution. They want to benefit from what has already been built and validated, with a straightforward route from integration to deployment.
Other customers want more control. They may have their own software organization, perception stack, or system architecture they want to preserve. In those cases, the most valuable contribution may be access to the people and expertise behind the technology, allowing them to create something more specific without rediscovering every lesson independently.
Some organizations do not need an entire solution. They already know what they want to build but have reached a difficult point in performance, integration, validation, or system design. A focused intervention from people who have solved similar problems can remove that obstacle and save significant development time.
In other cases, the hardest problem is data. Interior sensing must perform across enormous diversity: different people, behaviors, physical characteristics, lighting conditions, camera positions, cabin layouts, occlusions, and rare scenarios. A customer may have a capable engineering team and a clear product direction but lack the breadth of data required to develop or validate the most demanding parts of the system.
The important shift is that we should not assume every customer must use the technology in the same way. Our role is to understand where they are, what they want to retain, and which parts of our accumulated capability can help them move faster and with less risk.
Why is broader adoption of single-camera interior sensing important to the Evolving Cabin vision?
The Evolving Cabin needs a trusted foundation that can operate at scale.
The first stage was proving that a single camera could reliably understand both the driver and the rest of the cabin. That creates a simpler architecture with fewer components, fewer calibration points, lower integration complexity, and a better cost-to-value ratio. It also provides a more complete understanding of the people inside the vehicle.
From there, the architecture can evolve through sensor fusion and, where needed, multi-camera sensing. Additional viewpoints improve coverage, confidence, and robustness, especially when one camera cannot see everything required for decisions around readiness, safety, comfort, and automation. This becomes increasingly important as the industry moves from L2 to L3, where interior sensing must support more complex decisions around driver readiness and the transfer of control.
The next step is holistic sensing: combining interior understanding with exterior ADAS context. A driver looking away may be distracted or simply checking a mirror before a lane change. Together, interior sensing and ADAS can interpret not just the behavior, but what it means.
This progression leads toward the Evolving Cabin: an environment that learns, adapts, anticipates, and supports.
To make that vision real, single-camera DMS+OMS must become easier to adopt and build upon. Multi-camera sensing can extend it where greater coverage is needed, while holistic sensing connects the cabin with the world outside.
The next phase is making that foundation available in the form each customer needs. Some want control. Others need certainty, acceleration, or evidence. Our role is to meet them where they are, with the technology, expertise, and data they need to build what comes next.
Want to know more? Visit us at InCabin Barcelona, booth 300.
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