New VESA Standard Aims to Secure the Future of In-Car Displays

LAS VEGAS, NV – January 06, 2026 – As the automotive world converges on CES 2026, a critical advancement in vehicle safety is taking center stage. Teledyne LeCroy has announced support for the new VESA DisplayPort Automotive Extension (AE) standard within its quantumdata M42de testing platform, a move poised to solve one of the most pressing challenges for the next generation of vehicles: ensuring the absolute integrity of in-car displays.

Today’s vehicles are rapidly transforming into sophisticated digital hubs, with dashboards dominated by expansive, high-resolution screens. These displays are no longer just for entertainment or navigation; they are critical safety components that convey vital information, from speed and warning indicators to complex data from Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS). The announcement signals a pivotal moment for automakers and suppliers, providing them with the tools needed to validate that these complex systems are not only feature-rich but functionally safe and secure from malicious attacks.

The New Mandate for Digital Safety

The evolution toward the 'CASE' framework—Connected, Autonomous, Shared, and Electrified vehicles—has fundamentally altered automotive architecture. The proliferation of displays, with some luxury models featuring pillar-to-pillar screens, has created an urgent need for stringent safety protocols. A glitch, a dropped frame, or a cyberattack on a display showing critical ADAS warnings could have catastrophic consequences.

This reality has brought functional safety and cybersecurity to the forefront of automotive design. Industry standards like ISO 26262, which defines Automotive Safety Integrity Levels (ASIL), provide a framework for risk management in electronic systems. For safety-critical functions, achieving a high rating, such as ASIL-D, is the goal. Concurrently, regulations like UN R155 and the ISO 21434 standard mandate robust cybersecurity measures to protect vehicles from tampering.

Until now, a gap existed in the industry: there was no open, standardized way to guarantee that the video data sent from a car's electronic control unit (ECU) arrived at the display completely intact and uncorrupted. The VESA DisplayPort AE standard was created specifically to fill this void. It provides a protocol-level solution to verify data integrity, ensuring that what the driver sees is precisely what the car's systems intended to show.

A Deeper Look at the DisplayPort AE Standard

DisplayPort AE is not a replacement for existing technology but an essential extension built upon the robust foundations of DisplayPort 2.1 and Embedded DisplayPort (eDP) 1.5a, which are already widely used in automotive applications. Its primary innovation is the addition of safety and security layers without requiring costly changes to the underlying physical hardware.

The standard introduces several mechanisms to achieve the highest levels of functional safety. It employs high-safety-rated cyclical redundancy checks (CRC) and frame counters for every single video frame. This ensures that frames are not corrupted during transmission and that they are not being dropped or repeated—a critical function for displaying real-time information. Furthermore, video frame time-out monitoring maintains the integrity of the data link between the source and the screen.

On the security front, DP AE integrates cryptographic authentication and encryption to establish a secure, end-to-end channel. This thwarts any attempts to tamper with the video stream or inject malicious data. The protocol is designed to give stronger protection to legally mandated telltale indicators, such as check engine lights or airbag warnings, ensuring they cannot be spoofed or hidden by a cyberattack. VESA is developing a formal logo and certification program, expected later in 2026, which will allow manufacturers to officially validate their products, further driving industry-wide adoption.

Enabling the 'CASE' Transformation

Teledyne LeCroy's timely support for this standard is more than just a product update; it is a key enabler for the entire CASE revolution. For Connected vehicles, DP AE provides a hardened defense against cyber threats that could otherwise exploit infotainment systems to compromise vehicle safety. For Autonomous driving, where the vehicle's perception of its environment must be communicated to the occupants with perfect fidelity, the standard ensures that sensor data and system status are displayed without error or manipulation.

In the rapidly growing market for Electrified vehicles, where accurate display of battery range and charging status is fundamental to user trust and safety, the reliability guaranteed by DP AE is paramount. The global automotive display market, valued at nearly $13 billion in 2024, is projected to more than double by the early 2030s, fueled by these advanced applications and a consumer demand for larger, more capable screens using OLED and MiniLED technology. This explosive growth underscores the necessity of a common, verifiable safety standard.

"VESA's new Automotive Extension Services standard builds on the latest DisplayPort and eDP technologies to deliver a new era of safety and security for in-vehicle displays," said Bill Lempesis, Executive Director of VESA. "With Teledyne LeCroy's timely support for testing AE-enabled devices, developers now have a critical resource to ensure safety and reliability as this important protocol moves forward."

Building an Ecosystem of Trust and Validation

The introduction of a new standard is only effective if it can be reliably tested and implemented. By providing the quantumdata M42de Analyzer/Generator with DP AE support, Teledyne LeCroy positions itself as a crucial partner for automakers and Tier-1 suppliers navigating this new landscape. The platform empowers engineers to test their designs against the standard, accelerate development, and ensure compliance with VESA’s forthcoming certification program.

This ecosystem is being showcased at CES 2026, where Teledyne LeCroy is demonstrating its platform in collaboration with BTA Design Services, a firm specializing in advanced semiconductor design. The demonstration features BTA's Automotive Extensions IP Reference Design, proving that the standard is not just a theoretical concept but a practical, implementable solution. This collaboration shows a complete workflow: BTA provides the hardware-level IP that implements the standard, and Teledyne LeCroy provides the essential tools to validate it.

For an industry built on safety and reliability, this ability to test, verify, and certify is non-negotiable. As cars become increasingly defined by their software and digital interfaces, the trust placed in these systems must be absolute. The development and validation of standards like DisplayPort AE, enabled by advanced testing tools, form the bedrock upon which the safe, secure, and connected future of mobility will be built.