Automakers have spent the past decade turning dashboards into rolling tablets, but the latest wave of in-car displays is less about size and more about what the screen can actually do. LG and Harman are now pushing that shift with a pair of upgrades that promise richer picture quality and a front-row entertainment experience that does not clash with the driver’s job of keeping the car on the road.
At the center of this change is a new generation of OLED panels that can show different content to different people at the same time, paired with a display platform that brings premium HDR standards into the cabin. Together, they hint at a future where the same screen can be a navigation hub, a movie theater, and a personalized control surface, depending on who is looking at it and from where.
Dual view OLED turns one screen into two
The most eye-catching development is LG’s dual view OLED, a panel designed so the driver and front passenger can see completely different images on the same physical screen. Instead of splitting the dashboard into separate displays, the technology uses the viewing angle and pixel structure of OLED to direct distinct visuals toward each seat, which means navigation and vehicle data can face the driver while a movie or game is visible only to the passenger. It is a clever answer to a long-standing tension in car design, where front-seat entertainment has always risked distracting the person behind the wheel.
LG’s system is described as the world’s first in-cabin OLED solution capable of showing two different images at once, with each viewer able to watch completely different content without interference, a capability highlighted in detailed coverage of the new dual view OLED. The panel’s ability to maintain contrast and color fidelity at off-axis angles is what makes the split-view trick viable, and it is a reminder that OLED’s strengths in televisions and smartphones can translate directly into the car, where screens are rarely viewed straight on.
LG Display’s CES recognition signals industry momentum
Recognition for this approach has already arrived from one of the tech world’s most visible stages. LG Display has received two CES 2026 Innovation Awards from the Consumer Technology Association for its automotive display work, a nod that effectively tells carmakers these panels are not just lab demos but products ready for serious integration. Awards at this level tend to validate a technology in the eyes of procurement teams, who are under pressure to pick components that will still feel modern when a new model hits showrooms several years from now.
The company’s dual-view concept sits at the heart of that recognition, with the awards specifically tied to LG Display’s automotive screens and confirmed in reporting that the supplier won two CES 2026 Innovation Awards from the Consumer Technology Association for its dual-view screens. For car brands that like to tout CES trophies in their own marketing, that kind of third-party validation can be a powerful incentive to adopt LG’s panels in upcoming electric SUVs and premium sedans.
How dual view reshapes the front seat experience
From a user experience perspective, dual view OLED changes the front row from a shared compromise into two parallel environments. I see it as a way to let the driver keep a clean, distraction-free interface focused on speed, range, and navigation, while the passenger can dive into streaming video, casual games, or even productivity apps on the very same surface. That separation matters more as cars gain Level 2 and Level 3 driver assistance, where the temptation to treat the cockpit like a living room is growing faster than the legal and safety frameworks that govern it.
The technical promise is that the driver’s view remains uncluttered even when the passenger is watching a film or scrolling through social feeds, because the panel is engineered so each person sees only their intended image, a capability described as letting two people watch completely different content without interference in coverage of the world’s first dual view OLED. That design could also help automakers comply with regulations that restrict moving images in the driver’s line of sight, since the entertainment feed is effectively invisible from behind the wheel even though it shares the same hardware.
Harman’s Ready Display brings HDR10+ Automotive into the cabin
Running in parallel to LG’s panel innovation is Harman’s push to upgrade the quality of what appears on those screens. The company’s Ready Display platform is the first of its kind to receive HDR10+ Automotive certification, bringing a high dynamic range standard that has been common in living room TVs into the car. In practice, that means brighter highlights, deeper blacks, and more nuanced detail in both navigation graphics and entertainment content, which can make a real difference when a driver glances at a map in harsh sunlight or a passenger streams a movie on a night drive.
Harman has framed this certification as a milestone for in-car visuals, with reporting on Nov 17, 2025 noting that Harman’s Ready Display is the first of its kind to receive HDR10+ Automotive status, a detail confirmed in coverage of the Ready Display Automotive platform. For automakers, that gives them a clear spec to market, similar to how smartphone makers tout HDR standards on their flagships, and it sets a baseline for content providers who want their apps to look as good in the dashboard as they do on a home theater screen.
Why LG and Harman are moving in lockstep
What makes these two announcements more than isolated product news is the way they complement each other. LG’s dual view OLED tackles the hardware side of the equation, solving for viewing angles, contrast, and the physical layout of the cockpit, while Harman’s Ready Display focuses on the software and signal processing that determine how content is rendered. Together, they sketch out a future where a single, wide OLED strip can serve as both instrument cluster and cinema screen, with the system smart enough to tailor brightness, color, and even content type to each seat.
Reporting on Nov 17, 2025 ties these strands together by noting that LG reveals the world’s first dual view OLED screens for cars that let two people watch different things, while also highlighting Harman’s Ready Display as part of the same wave of automotive display technologies that will feature in future applications, a connection laid out in coverage of LG’s OLED and Harman Ready initiatives. For carmakers planning next-generation cabins, the appeal is obvious: pair a cutting-edge panel supplier with a display platform that already speaks the language of HDR10+ Automotive, and much of the heavy lifting on visual quality and safety-friendly content separation is already done.
From concept dashboards to production cars
The remaining question is how quickly these technologies move from trade show demos into cars people can actually buy. Concept vehicles have been flaunting pillar-to-pillar screens and transparent displays for years, but suppliers like LG Display and Harman are now signaling that their solutions are engineered for real-world constraints such as heat, vibration, and long-term reliability. When a component wins CES Innovation Awards and secures formal HDR10+ Automotive certification, it suggests the underlying hardware and software stacks have matured past the prototype stage and are ready for integration into platforms that will ship in the second half of the decade.
Coverage that describes LG’s dual view OLED as Said to be the world’s first in-cabin OLED solution capable of displaying two different images at once, and that details Harman’s HDR10+ Automotive certification for Ready Display, frames both as technologies that automakers expect to feature in future automotive applications rather than distant experiments, a trajectory outlined in reporting on the LG and Harman upgrades. If recent concept interiors from premium brands are any guide, the first production models to adopt dual view OLED and HDR10+ Automotive are likely to be high-end electric crossovers and flagship sedans, where buyers are already primed to pay for larger screens and richer in-car entertainment.
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