Interview with Dr Dominique Heilborn, TactoTek
“With IMSE, trim, electronics, lighting, sensing and HMI become one part”
Dr Dominique Heilborn, Director Ecosystem Partnerships at TactoTek.
Dr Dominique Heilborn
As smart interiors move towards functional, illuminated surfaces, integration is becoming a production challenge. Dr Dominique Heilborn of TactoTek explains how IMSE brings trim, electronics, lighting, sensing and HMI together.
At the Automotive Lighting
Conference 2026, Dr Dominique Heilborn contributed his perspective in a
Design Session and joined the panel “How do other lighting trends influence the
Automotive Lighting Industry, particularly in Interior Designs?” alongside Yves Peitzner, independent artist and lecturer at Munich
University of Applied Sciences, Xavier Denis of Nichia Europe and Mathias Rönnfeldt of SP3.
The following interview with Dr Heilborn extends that
discussion into production practice. We spoke with TactoTek’s Director
Ecosystem Partnerships about why smart surfaces are not
just a component question, where current development approaches still
fall short and why simultaneous engineering is becoming essential for
high-volume production.
Looking ahead three to five years, what will be the
biggest bottleneck in bringing smart surfaces with integrated lighting, sensing
and electronics from concept vehicles into high-volume production?
The bottleneck is less about the technology, which is
already running in real programmes, and more about how we work together. Part
of it is industrialisation: getting each programme through a coupled
electrical, thermal, optical and mechanical design efficiently, and better tools and AI are helping there. But the bigger
part is cultural. A smart surface has to be developed through simultaneous
engineering, with design, electronics, optics and mechanics working as one from
the very first concept. That calls for strong alignment, not just inside a
company but between companies that were used to handing work over the fence.
Get that alignment right, and the path to volume opens up.
Which decision being made today will most strongly
determine how value is created in future smart
interiors – material integration, electronics architecture, software
interfaces or ecosystem partnerships?
Material integration, electronics, software and partnerships
all matter. The decision that tends to compound most is the architectural
choice made early: whether you treat the surface as a styled cover or as an
integrated, software-addressable element. That choice shapes much of what
follows. But potential becomes value mainly through ecosystem partnerships,
which is what I focus on most in my role. Architecture opens up what is
possible; the ecosystem shapes whether you deliver it at volume and who benefits
most from it. The two have to move together, because one without the other
rarely gets you there.
Where do current approaches to interior lighting and
smart surfaces still fall short when it comes to combining design,
functionality, manufacturability and long-term reliability?
Today, most interiors are still built from separate parts
assembled together: trim, a lighting module, a sensor, the electronics, the
decorative surface, each optimised on its own and reconciled late. That is
where the trade-offs creep in, such as design freedom versus packaging, or
function versus thickness. Reliability is often the first to suffer because
every connector, adhesive and joint adds a place where a promising concept can
fall down in validation. We see plenty of beautiful concepts, and fewer that
survive all the way through series development. Much of this traces back to the
assembly approach, which is why these functions are better designed as one.
How does IMSE change the traditional separation between
trim, electronics, lighting, sensing and HMI development in automotive
interiors?
IMSE, or In-Mold Structural
Electronics, brings them much closer together. Conventionally, trim,
electronics, lighting, sensing and HMI are five separate streams, five teams
and five timelines that only come together late. With IMSE, they become one
part and one development flow – printed, formed and moulded, with light,
sensing and circuitry integrated into the surface itself. Because that
is hard to design in silos, teams from each discipline design it together from
the start, rather than passing it down the line step by step. It is
simultaneous engineering made physical, and the shift is organisational as much
as technical. Many of the compromises that used to happen between departments
simply fall away.
What kind of ecosystem partnerships are needed to prevent
smart surface projects from becoming isolated one-off solutions for individual
vehicle programmes?
The way to avoid one-offs is a
horizontal ecosystem of defined roles that carries across programmes, instead
of custom integration each time. That includes film manufacturers,
printers and the Tier 1 moulders who bring parts to series. It also includes
design and engineering partners who can reach a validated prototype quickly,
and a broad base of certified suppliers. What ties it all together is a shared
platform underneath: common design rules, validated materials, reference
designs and tools. That is our role at TactoTek. We do not manufacture; we
license the IMSE technology and maintain that shared foundation, so knowledge
builds over time rather than being reinvented each time.
Where do you see the biggest organisational or
supply-chain challenge when traditional component boundaries disappear and
surfaces become functional, illuminated and interactive?
This is really the question that everything else leads
to. When the boundaries between components disappear, so do the organisational
lines we have built our industry around. We have structured ourselves around
parts, each with its own owner, supplier, budget, specification and warranty,
but a functional, illuminated, interactive surface does not sit neatly inside
those lines. So the real challenge is not a single technical one. It is
learning to organise around the surface instead of around parts, and to do it
across company lines, not only within them. That is why every thread in this
conversation points the same way: the cultural shift to simultaneous
engineering, the early architecture decision, the move from assembly to
integration, five streams becoming one part and a shared ecosystem with common
design rules. They are all the same shift, seen from different angles. The
companies that treat this as a new way of working
together, rather than a new component to source, are the ones best
placed to turn smart surfaces into a thriving business.
