Intertraffic 2026: Key Insights from the Event Floor

Intertraffic 2026 here in Amsterdam is closing its doors. And as those doors close, we look back on these four hectic days, in which innovation was at the centre of it all. In this edition, we've seen typical mentions like AI, but maybe less AI than in other smart city verticals. Vendors still offer a lot of solutions that rely heavily on hardware. Cameras were everywhere, thanks to how versatile they are, but we've also seen a lot of LiDAR in this edition. Maybe it has to do with the fact that there are many privacy concerns around cameras, but we'll see how this evolves. In terms of players, there were major players like TomTom, Kapsch, SWARCO... During our conversations with exhibitors, a lot of times we spoke about digital twins as one of the trends. So let's hear from them the trends they've seen at Intertraffic and maybe something they would have liked to see more of. We see a very healthy industry that is growing. There is room for startups. There is room, of course, for the big players. In terms of trends, of course, AI everywhere. I'm glad to see the cameras are becoming de facto the standard in terms of sensors, and I like to see the AI from the edge and AI for AI. So, AI to understand the images and AI to make the data meaningful and produce insights to improve all the different use cases. You see a lot of more intelligence. So you see that systems can actually talk to each other. You see facilitators that enable these platforms to actually integrate and enable the end users to make better decisions. So you see, of course, electrification of vehicles, which is great, of course. But what I miss is charging while driving. So I would have thought to see that more in this edition. It's the first year we here at Intertraffic. Obviously the event is very big. It's a big event here in Europe. As a startup it's a great platform for increasing our visibility. Now, the thing is, with these big events is that the topics are generally quite broad, and it's not always easy for us to connect with the right people. So it's an investment from us to come here to spend several days here to just find the right contacts that's going to bring our business forward. We've seen an awful lot of detection companies, LiDAR, computer vision, radars. I think there's lots of established players in the market. There's a lot of startups. And I think the industry is moving forward pretty nicely on the detection point of view. We've seen digital twins take some leaps and bounds really, really pushed forward. What I'm missing a little bit from some providers around the hall is the proof of the benefit of their system. At SWARCO we’re an integrator. So I want to go and look at these detection methodologies, for instance, as an example. And they can show us what they've done and how they've done it. But I really want to see the proof. I want to see the metrics, the measurements, the improvements that they make. Intertraffic 2026 revealed an industry that is evolving and maturing, but still balancing its future between hardware and software. Cameras and LiDAR continue to dominate the sensing layer, while AI and digital twins promise smarter decision-making on top of it. The next challenge may not be innovation itself, but proving that these technologies deliver measurable improvements on the road and facing a market that demands more for less.