MyTechDailyNews: How Central Cabin Sensing, Cameras, and Radar Are Reshaping Car Safety Checks

For readers who follow everyday tech stories, the cabin is becoming a monitored environment that tries to notice more than just the person behind the wheel. The central idea coming out of BARCELONA, Spain is simpler hardware doing more jobs: a camera in a shared spot inside the vehicle, plus radar, rather than many dedicated optical units.

This is the kind of change that can move from conference talk to showroom because safety expectations can shape what manufacturers choose to build. A key voice in the discussion is Davide Maggi, project officer at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), who spoke at AutoSens Europe 2026 and told EE Times that centralized systems can cover the front and rear cabin, while radar helps detect what cameras cannot see.

Davide Maggi during a panel at AutoSens Europe 2026 (Source: AutoSens)

What is changing in the cabin

Instead of one sensor aimed only at the driver, automakers are considering one central optical unit, often near the rearview mirror or inside the center dashboard display, that observes both the driver and other occupants. Maggi’s observation was: “It seems like everyone is moving away from a driver monitoring system just facing the driver and pointing toward a camera in the center,” and he added that a single centrally mounted device “can also provide both driver monitoring and occupant monitoring across the entire front and rear cabin.”

For nearly a decade, safety engineers used steering-column cameras because that placement gave algorithms a direct view of the driver’s eyes and face. That view helped with blinking, gaze shifts, and fatigue signs. Maggi framed the older setup as the default of a past wave of systems: “Ten years ago, when we started seeing the first driver monitoring systems, they were all steering column-based—most of them, except for Tesla, which was the only one adding an RGB camera in the center top,” he said.

The new direction is less about one extra sensor and more about integration. A central device is intended to handle driver monitoring and occupant monitoring without covering every seat with its own optical hardware. That is where cost becomes relevant.

The optical trade-off when the camera moves

Moving an optical sensor from the steering column to the vehicle’s center changes the geometry. The angle is more oblique. The same part must serve more faces, more head positions, and more cabin conditions. Maggi described that compromise with a spatial metaphor: “Having the camera up there and moving from a two-camera system—one for DMS and one for occupant monitoring—to one that does both has its own challenges,” he said. “The blanket is this size: If you pull it from one side, some other part will go uncovered .”

Head movement can matter. Maggi explained: “In this case, if you put the camera up there, whenever you lose accuracy in tracking where the driver is looking when he moves his head to this side, basically half of the face is gone,” and he also noted everyday items can interfere: “with the headwear, it could be getting tricky, because if you’re wearing a hat or anything, some blockage might occur .”

Children can present another kind of optical limit. If a small passenger is below the camera’s line of sight or hidden while sleeping, a visual system may not get the evidence it needs.

Why radar is being paired with a central camera

Suppliers are not simply adding more camera eyes everywhere. Instead, Maggi described a hybrid: “It’s interesting that now it’s going back to having one-size-fits-all from a technology side,” he said. “And the new part is that most of them—actually, I think all of them—are also embedding radar monitoring systems to detect what the camera cannot see .”

Short-range millimeter-wave radar and ultra-wideband sensing systems can detect subtle movements, including a sleeping child’s breathing, even through fabrics and other materials. In practical terms, radar is being discussed as a way to fill visual blind spots without placing a second optical assembly on every surface that needs monitoring.

Pairing a single central camera with radars lets Tier 1 automotive suppliers support both driver monitoring and child presence detection. At the conference, system developers demonstrated different integration paths, including visual video feeds and real-time radar point-cloud data shown together. Maggi said: “I’ve seen some of them already providing a high-level vision combining camera and radar; others just provide a visual of what they get from the point-cloud data,” adding, “It’s fascinating. It’s supposed to be a lot cheaper than mounting cameras to monitor everything .”

How safety programs shape the design

The European New Car Assessment Programme, known as Euro NCAP, matters because it influences what buyers see as safe and what builders decide to standardize. Its updated protocol path is tied to driver state monitoring, driver impairment detection, and child presence detection.

“For sure, cost is one thing,” Maggi said. “I don’t know what influence that Euro NCAP has had in these choices, because now in Euro NCAP you can see that for 2026 and 2029 you have more requirements for driver monitoring and occupant monitoring especially, which was not there some years ago .”

The practical target is a five-star rating, because that score helps buyers compare vehicles without needing to understand every sensor layout. Maggi put it bluntly: “I don’t know if manufacturers now see that there’s no profitability in having a high-end driver monitoring system,” he said. “Because the only thing that matters is actually getting five stars on Euro NCAP.”

Assistance and automation are not being mixed

The cabin sensing story should not be read as a claim that cars are suddenly becoming fully automated. European authorities are separating driver-assistance features from automated driving systems so drivers understand what the vehicle is doing. Maggi described the regulatory split: “Regulatory-wise, the first thing that we tried to do is to separate levels of automation as they are defining a level, completely discarding the SAE [levels of driving automation] definition and really going into the details of what is an ADS and how it should be regulated, versus what is an assistant system,” he said.

He added that the two categories are treated as different legal objects: “DCAS regulation and ADS regulation are two very separate things,” Maggi said. Automated regulations specify “that there cannot be a transition from a Level 4 system to a Level 2 system, to avoid any more confusion happening with the driver not knowing the capability of the system in the vehicle .”

At-a-glance comparison

Area	Steering-column approach	Central camera with radar
Target	Driver’s eyes and face	Driver and occupants, front and rear cabin
Hardware pattern	Dedicated optical unit near the wheel	One central optical unit plus radar sensing
Cost logic	Clear but less broad coverage	Fewer components for wider coverage
Main issue	Does not easily cover passengers	Angle, obstruction, clothing, hidden occupants

Quick checklist for car buyers

• Look for whether the system is described as covering the driver and the whole cabin, not only the driver.
• Ask whether child presence detection is included as part of the monitoring system.
• Check whether radar is being used alongside a central camera for movements that a camera may miss.
• Use Euro NCAP information as a comparison point, especially around the 2026 and 2029 timing mentioned by Maggi.
• Separate assistance from automation: a cabin camera does not mean the car is making a self-driving claim.

Common misconceptions

• A central camera is not automatically better because it is central. Its placement can create oblique views.
• A hat, headwear, or ordinary blocking objects can affect tracking, according to Maggi.
• one-size-fits-all does not mean one sensor sees everything; radar is added for what the camera cannot see.
• A five-star focus does not mean manufacturers ignore high-end systems everywhere; it reflects cost and certification priorities.

FAQ

Why would automakers move away from steering-column cameras?

The motivation is streamlining interior electronics and reducing component counts while still covering more occupants.

What does radar add to a cabin camera?

Radar can detect subtle movements through fabrics and other materials, including breathing, when the camera’s line of sight is limited.

Why do the 2026 and 2029 dates matter?

They are part of Euro NCAP’s expanded protocols for monitoring driver state, impairment, and child presence.

Does this mean cars are becoming Level 4 or Level 2 systems?

No. European rules treat assistance and automated driving separately, and Level 4 to Level 2 transitions are not allowed under the regulatory framing Maggi described.

Action suggestions

1. When comparing vehicles, treat safety ratings as a shortcut for whether the car meets monitoring expectations.
2. Read feature lists for driver monitoring, occupant monitoring, and child presence detection as separate capabilities.
3. If a car uses central sensing, do not assume it works in every head position; hats or turned heads can matter.
4. Stay alert about marketing language: assistance, driver control help, and automated driving are not the same regulatory category.

The takeaway

For general readers, the story is not merely “cameras moved.” It is a balance of coverage, cost, certification, and regulation. A central camera can help monitor more people, radar can help catch what eyes cannot, and the Euro NCAP path gives manufacturers a clear commercial reason to build integrated cabin sensing around what buyers compare.