KD Highlights Growing Interest in Optical Ethernet at AutoSens Europe 2026
2026-09-28 · KD
KD has concluded a successful participation at AutoSens Europe 2026, held from September 22–24 at La Farga de L’Hospitalet in Barcelona, where automotive sensing specialists gathered to discuss the technologies shaping the next generation of ADAS and autonomous vehicles. Bringing together more than 1,000 engineers, innovators and decision-makers, and featuring over 60 expert speakers, the event provided a particularly relevant setting for KD to assess how optical connectivity is being perceived by the companies designing future vehicle architectures.
At Stand 140, Juan Pardo, Deputy General Director at KD, and Luis Medina, Field Application Engineer, met with OEMs, Tier-1 suppliers and technology companies throughout the three-day event. The team reported strong interest in moving automotive optical connectivity towards practical evaluation, including conversations with several leading vehicle manufacturers interested in potential proof-of-concept activities. Interest also extended beyond OEMs and suppliers, with semiconductor companies and players in the radar sector engaging with KD around the technology and the continued development of the BASE-AU ecosystem.
A central part of those discussions was KD’s live 10GBASE-AU automotive camera demonstration, which provided visitors with a tangible example of optical Ethernet already integrated into an automotive camera system. The setup brings together a Leopard Imaging camera incorporating KD’s KD7251 automotive optical transceiver, together with the connector and optical cable solution from Corning, creating an end-to-end implementation capable of carrying high-speed sensor data over glass optical fiber. Rather than demonstrating individual components in isolation, the system allowed attendees to see how the different elements of the optical ecosystem work together, helping turn discussions about bandwidth, robustness and integration into a practical automotive use case.
KD also contributed to the conference programme, with Luis Medina presenting “Improving Predictive Maintenance in ADAS Sensor Networks through Runtime Optical Link Monitoring” on September 23. The presentation explored how multi-gigabit Automotive Optical Ethernet based on IEEE 802.3cz can provide more than high-speed data transmission: integrated monitoring capabilities can continuously assess optical-link quality while the vehicle is operating. By combining transceiver-level monitoring with bidirectional status exchange, the approach can provide quantitative information about link health and help identify degradation before it affects communication, supporting predictive-maintenance strategies for increasingly complex ADAS sensor networks.
For KD, the overall impression from Barcelona was one of growing maturity in the industry’s approach to automotive optical connectivity. Conversations at the stand increasingly focused not only on why optical Ethernet can be relevant, but on how it can be evaluated, integrated and demonstrated within real vehicle programmes. The combination of OEM and Tier-1 interest, potential proof-of-concept discussions and enquiries from companies considering participation in the BASE-AU ecosystem made AutoSens Europe a particularly positive event for KD, and another indication that optical connectivity is moving steadily closer to practical adoption in next-generation automotive networks.
About KD
KD is a Spanish semiconductor company leading the market for high-speed data transmission through optical fiber in challenging environments. For 15 years, the company has been reinventing the way optical communications are made to make them robust and affordable enough for the automotive, consumer and industrial markets.