FuturePrint Podcast
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FuturePrint Podcast
#281 Inside The Hidden World Of Automotive Haptics
Touch is a language—and modern cars are finally speaking it. We sit down with Elisa Santella, managing director at Grewus and a founding member of the company, to explore how haptics moved from phone buzzes to production-ready smart surfaces that make driving safer, clearer, and more expressive.
Elisa breaks down what haptics really is—feel, not just vibration—and why the magic only happens when components become complete solutions. We get into the nuts and bolts of automotive HMI: matching actuators with plastics and ribs, picking the right sensors, driving the hardware with tight latency, and designing tactile patterns that convey confirm, warn, or block. She shares how Grewus works as a tier two supplier with tier ones, universities, and material partners to build an ecosystem capable of shipping refined touch into real cars.
We also talk brand identity you can feel. As vehicles become software-defined, haptics offers a new signature for each OEM: a distinct click for a control, a unique feedback profile for a mode change, and a multimodal experience that pairs light and sound for instant clarity. For EVs and future autonomy, haptics restores emotion without noise, adding subtle, localised sensations that bring back the thrill and reinforce safety. From gaming peripherals to wellness applications, the same electromagnetic expertise scales across markets—and it is already in mass production.
If you care about user experience, automotive design, or the future of human–machine interfaces, this conversation maps the next chapter of tactile UX: measurable, repeatable, and unmistakably branded. Listen, subscribe, and leave a review with the haptic cue you’d want in your next car.
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FuturePrint TECH: Industrial Print: 21-22 January '26, Munich, Germany
Well, hi there, and welcome to this week's Future Prince podcast. And I'm very pleased to have with me Elisa Santella, who is managing director of Greyus. And she is being very kind to us to do a podcast, but she's also going to be speaking as our keynote in Munich in January. Elisa, great to see you, great to speak to you today.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you so much for having me here. I'm really excited to be uh here uh in in the Future Tech podcast. It's a great pleasure and honor also to be one of the keynote speakers for the conference in January.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and you you certainly know, you certainly do quite a few uh presentations. So we'll talk a bit more about that in a minute. Um Elisa, just for anyone who doesn't know you, um obviously the company is very much about haptics, and we're going to talk about that in a moment. But but Elisa, just give me a little bit of your story and tell us a bit about Graves.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, a pleasure. Yeah. So as you mentioned, I'm uh one of the managing directors of the company Gravus. Um, Graves is uh located in Hamburg and North Germany. Uh, we are uh we are basically we are an acoustic company and started just a few years ago. I think it's already eight, nine years ago. We also started with haptics. So maybe just a few rough information, not to go intoo much in detail and technical details, but um Graves is a manufacturer and developer of acoustic and haptic components. We are basically some kind of hidden champions in the market because everybody hears us or feels us every day. Um uh especially in regards of acoustic, because we are already in the market uh for now 18 years, so quite a long time.
SPEAKER_00:Yep.
SPEAKER_01:And um, yeah, but that's basically what we are doing. So you can hear us and feel us basically every day. And um, I don't want to go too much in detail, but um, what we're uh what we're doing is really the component in behind, but I will explain it a little bit later.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, just give me a bit on you though. Tell us a bit about you.
SPEAKER_01:Sure. So I'm one of the founding members of the company Gravis, so I'm quite a long time now working in automotive as well. So I'm working now in automotive acoustics uh for 22 years, so half of my life.
SPEAKER_00:We shouldn't go there, we never ask a lady their age.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Um, that um yeah, I'm as I said, I'm working in automotive for 22 years. Um I started the business here at Graves, I'm one of the founding members, and um I started with acoustic. And quite a while ago, I figured out I like to talk to people and I like to do sales. Uh, it was not my my main job when I started at Graves, but um I figured out I I love to talk to uh engineers and people are really experts and what they are doing um on a really unconventional way. I think that makes uh makes it more interesting. I'm uh I love haptics and I try to bring this this technology not only to engineers, also to people who are interested in in technical stuff because I'm not I'm not an engineer, um I'm a commercial person, and um I'm working in the haptics industry forum. So we are trying to uh to bring this community to uh to the whole world. Yep, and uh that's what I love. And um I I I'm responsible for the haptic key accounts, and I have a really beautiful team of really nice people uh called Team Pink. So haptics is pink, you will also see it on the conference in my presentation.
SPEAKER_00:Very cool, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And um, yeah, as I said, I'm not a technical, I'm I love technic, uh I love uh technology, but I'm I'm not an engineer. No, but uh I love this technology.
SPEAKER_00:So you you mentioned the word several times, haptics. Or anyone who doesn't know what that word means, let's just explain it to people.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. I I love this question, thank you. So haptics is basically um, so it comes from the Greek word. I don't want to go too much in detail, but uh it's what everything you can feel. And when I started haptics uh eight years ago, um I try to explain people haptics on this way. So imagine you have your smartphone in your hand, and everybody knows this feeling of the vibration from the smartphone, and it's really cool because uh it's some kind of phantom feeling. Um, so you feel the vibration. Haptics is something you can feel, and it starts everything with the smartphones. Uh, at the beginning, it was this pager. I don't know. I'm I'm already that old and I know pager, and this is the technology where everything starts with the ERM, so this vibrating motors inside. Now we are talking about much more sophisticated things when I talk about haptics, but um, at that time was always the example having a smartphone in your hand, and when you press the home button, that's all my time, what the home button, um then you have the feeling of this click. And this was the first uh the first uh sensation I also had with haptics. Um I I felt this this button. The funny thing is um it's it's an illusion because you will not feel the click of this home button in your finger because you think it is on your finger, but it's on your hand where you have the smartphone. So imagine you have your the smartphone in the left hand and you push the button, then you have the feeling to click a button, but basically you feel it in the left hand, not in the right hand, so not in your finger. And that's some kind of illusion where I it felt so fascinating for me. And when you put at that time, it was so easy to impress the people because if you put the smartphone on your desk and you press a button, you will feel nothing because only the the table will start vibrating. And um, so basically, haptics is what you can feel. And I was impressed about the technology when I felt the first time this that time was the Apple smartphone, the first iPhone with this home button. And that was the first time where I had the impression okay, haptics is really something cool.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you, as a business, focus on vibro tactile technologies for automotive. Obviously, there's other markets that could be interesting, like gaming products, like white goods, like consumer electronics, but but actually uh, you know, it it's it's the vibrating aspect of that haptic technology, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. So, but um I will go maybe a little bit more in detail in in the next uh uh also during my presentation because I love to do the presentation on this way, is um I we are the experts in the component. So it's just the actuator itself who do the vibrations, but it's really uh uh bringing together um all the disciplines. So you need to have the whole application in mind always when you do haptics and not putting something so a vibrotactile actuator at the end of the project. So it's being part of the big process uh to integrate haptics, not only just the small component. That's the reason why I have this beautiful team around me with people who are experts and mechanic and driving and sensing and haptic pattern design um and the actuator itself. And of course, because we are acoustic component um manufacturer, of course, acoustic is also a part of the haptics because you need to feel and to hear it. If you have something that is more immersive, then you need to have this feel and hear sensation at the same time.
SPEAKER_00:Sure, sure, absolutely makes sense, and I guess in the main, just so we can understand your markets. Um you're targeting tier one manufacturers of parts that go into automotive or white goods or gaming products. Is that correct?
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. So we are uh typical tier two manufacturers, so we are typically tier two. If you're talking about specific about automotive, we are tier two, so we will deliver the component to a tier one, uh, for example, for a smart surface. If we're talking about smart surfaces like uh displays or uh any kind of uh button replacing surface in in a car, we are already mass production uh in automotive, so we are uh uh already in the market for surface haptics, uh, but we are also already in the market for for gaming, for example, gaming applications. And um, this is what we are doing. Um, so automotive is a hard business, especially right now. Um, but I I like to be focused more on the positive things, so um I'm I'm really proud that we are really part of uh of already an existing um market, and we are part of this really automotive uh inside market with already parts in mass production, and it takes usually five years to go in mass production for haptics or for a new technology, and uh we are in mass production now. I think for the first haptic project in automotive, it's now two years. Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. And and and as you said, you know, there are some, you know, the automotive market potentially in in Europe is is maybe uh facing some some challenges. Um, but I guess what you're saying is, yeah, but we are doing stuff that's really innovative that continues to game change for the automotive marketplace to to give the manufacturer something really unique to the experience of driving a car.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely, and to have a CI. So you you you need to so something where there's uh I think and I'm I'm really a car enthusiastic person, um, I love cars, and um I I see it also on the way. Okay, if I have a car, if I need to buy a car, if I would like to buy a car, it's still something with has you you have emotions. So um you you need to feel, uh, you need to hear. So if you have no engine, no horsepowers, uh, and of course the the range is nice because you're driving an electrical car, but you still need to feel something. And I um I like to have uh this exchange with the OEMs. I just um had meeting uh big OEM last week, um, especially in regards to this haptic sensation that can be used on so many different ways to differentiate one brand to the other. Yeah, and if we're talking about software cars, you still need to uh uh bring the own DNA CI of a car brand and being part of of this process and being part um of the um of of the the ideas the OEMs could have and could use for for for with our technology, it's really exciting.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, I think you're right. Um in terms of haptics as a technology, and particularly the kind of area you're in, why is it so much of a game changer? Why why is it why is it making people sit up and look and listen?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's that's a good question. Thank you. Um so when when we started haptics uh a few years ago, um we figured out it's uh it was at that time was something, it's just a vibrating motor somewhere, it can be switched on and off, and that's basically all. And people had no idea um how to use it because this this this is a feeling, so you need to feel haptics. And we started at that time during COVID, you couldn't feel anything, so it was uh trying to promote something uh what you need to feel via video was extremely challenging. But it was it was a game changer during that time because we used Teams and we used demos, we used um we used uh all possibilities we had, um, also sending uh back and forth um demos for the to the customers, also to private addresses because they're weren't allowed to go to the office. Um but during that time the people recognized okay, it's not only a vibrating something. I can not I can use it, of course, just to replace the buttons or mechanical switches, um, but it was so much more. And during that time, we developed a test system so that we can measure one part and the other part in the world, and we have the same base database we can uh we can uh compare and we can exchange. And during that time, we figured out it is a real game changer, um, also to be really a haptic solution provider. So we call ourselves a haptic solution provider because as I mentioned, it's not only about the component itself, it's about the whole application. And you need to know all disciplines and not just put at the end an Actuator somewhere and say, Oh, now we have active haptics. No, it's so much more. Um, it's the the feeling of um of safety because if I press something and I have no haptic feedback or any kind of feedback, for example, on a display, I don't know if I if I did the interaction, if this happened what I I expected. Um, and it's it's uh it's the safety aspect is this okay, how an alert should feel like, or how uh something would I confirm feels like. So the haptic pattern design is one part, but also the whole mechanical integration, because I don't want to have the vibrating things all over the car just while I would like to press the display. And I need to have um the driving of the actuator, the sensing should be as fast as possible because if I have a reaction time which is too long, is weird.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, and you lose the value, you lose the value of the haptic, don't you?
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely, absolutely. And this is bringing all these things together and building also the the team around and having I have a mechanical engineer, I have a driving engineer, I have a sensing engineer, and um, I have the the people can do haptic design pattern design pattern. Uh we collaborate really close with uh universities in in Denmark, but also here in Hamburg. And um, this is something it's a game changer for the market because we see the haptics as a whole solution. Um, but it's also the on the way around, the haptics was for us a game changer because we already produced this component. So if you're talking about electromagnetic components in haptics or in acoustics, it's basically we're talking about the same things, so we are just using other frequencies. Yep, yeah, just something you can hear or something you can feel.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And this was a game changer, also, to having this. Um, we are still experts in everything that has a magnet and a coil inside. Why don't use it as an acoustic and a haptic component? And this is what we are doing, and now we are doing, I think, quite successfully uh in automotive in gaming. Um, we also have some smaller medical application where you are talking about wellness, relaxation, because frequencies are part of our everyday world. So I can hear you, so I can hear your frequency. And I can feel the frequency when I'm uh when I'm in the water, so it's something, it's it's always about the frequency.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Let me ask you something. I just I just want to understand. Um, you build one part of, as you said yourself, the buttons or the the surfaces. Do you yeah, I guess you have to have quite strong relationships and partnerships with the other parts of the manufacturing process. So so as you talk about uh the actual vibrating feeling, there is also the lay, you know, the layer that is there that might have bubbles on it or a ripple on it to create a sense of a surface. So that haptic technology is not just the vibration, it is also the feeling. So, do you guys work quite closely with the people that layer down the materials you know that go with it?
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. So, this is something um I think it was really the basic of our work we when we started Haptix is really building this partnerships and building this network that it's this ecosystem of people belonging to one application. If we can, if we can say one application, I mean really a surface, not only a car, because the car is an even bigger application at all. Um, that for example, uh let us call it the smart surface. So the smart surface can be a button bar. So I would like to replace, I don't know, nine buttons in a car responsible for, I don't know, playlists or for uh all my favorite things I have in the in a button bar, for example. And um, so we we talk to the plastic manufacturer, we talk to the sensor manufacturer, we talk to um the tier one who will do all the, I would like to say to bringing all the components together, because at the end it's one tier one. If we're talking about automotive, it's the tier one who will supply to the OEM. Um, so he will be the one responsible at the end. But um, I have or we have a really nice ecosystem because it's not only about the vibration under the surface, it's the surface itself. So, how stiff is the surface? What is the um material structure? What is the the knobs and rips and everything you have on top of the surface? Um, what is the sensor technology under the surface? Because that's the next layer, I would like to say. What is the sensor technology? Is it is a capacitive foil? Is it what are we talking about functional safety? So we need maybe some combination of capacitive and force sensor because in automotive usually have this functional safety level where if you if you press a button, it should work only under pressure, not under force, not only having capacitive your finger on top, and then you will switch on it, switch off everything. Uh, we remember a steering wheel uh a few years ago. Uh that was uh I would like to say uh not a good example of combination of force and uh capacitive. It it worked not really very well. It's not our project, it's what not was it not our product, but uh that was a problem because and and it was a problem so that for many years nobody had uh real active haptic steering wheel.
SPEAKER_00:So it was uh yeah, I don't want to go too no no no I know what you're saying, you're kind of saying it put things back, didn't it? You know, people didn't like it, so yeah, it stopped. Yeah, I get that, I get that. But but as we said, it's it's important that relationship you have with other parts of the mix into the manufacture process. I I I completely get that. Um, I just want to ask you, uh, I mean, as as as we've talked about already, you you're gonna be talking at the at the event that we're running in Motorworld in in Munich in in January. Um, so we're really looking forward to that, and it'll be really exciting to hear your view. And I'm sure the audience will be interested. You know, it's it's uh that region, the Bavaria market, a lot of a lot of automotive down there. So certainly, certainly, you know, it's interesting what you're saying. I guess what I would be fascinated to know is what you think the future looks like for this kind of technology.
SPEAKER_01:So I think the future looks like so. There there are some examples also presented now on the IAA just uh a few months ago. It's two two months ago. Yeah, and um, I think the the future uh of this technology will be uh much more emotion-related and much more related to multimodal, so HMI systems. So that's the reason why I call it emotion, because at the end it's the is really the combination of a lot of things of light, sound, it could also acoustics, uh haptics, um, so this whole HMI experience in a car, as mentioned, differentiation, big topic. If you're talking also about software cars and so on, you need to build an experience. And if you're a cam car manufacturer, uh having the uh a really uh HMI system fits to your own CI, but adjustable to each driver because I have maybe other preferences that than you maybe have or uh than other people have. Um, and so it's much more about multimodal HMI interaction, so HMI at all, multimodal because I need to feel, I need to hear, I need to um, I need to see. Um, and this is definitely something um where I think emotion, the eye, branding, it's uh it's a future of of the haptics. Not I don't want to say it will be such kind of actuator or this kind of actuator, because at the end it's is always a mixture about costs and what is the customer asking for. But um, I think the future is really haptics as part of this multimodal HMI system, and haptics as part of an emotional feeling and also safety, of course, because yeah, at the end, we need to drive safe if we are still driving by ourselves. And um, this is something where there's definitely the future of the haptics um or the future car of interior in combination with haptics, acoustic, light, and so on.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, I understand. Elisa, we we we you mentioned earlier that you really love cars, and obviously we're running this event in Motorworld. Do you know Motorworld? Have you ever been to it?
SPEAKER_01:No, will be the first time for me. I'm really excited.
SPEAKER_00:And uh the great and the good of the German automotive industry park their very special cars in Motorworld. So there's lots of really, really beautiful cars there, and um, you know, you'll have a chance to see that. What what's your favorite car? What what car do you love?
SPEAKER_01:I'm I I need to be honest. So uh BMW. I'm a real BMW of yours. I love uh BMW and I'm I'm driving uh since many years, BMW. Yeah, uh of course, um it's it's uh the biggest customer of the company, Graves.
SPEAKER_00:Is that right? So BMW are one of your customers. Well, that's nice to hear. So your technology is in is in the cars. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:It's already in the cars.
SPEAKER_00:That is really interesting. And we touched on it though, that kind of EV electronic vehicle versus I'm not asking you for your view of one or the other, um, but do you sense a real kind of shift in terms of the production of motor cars um going forward? Will it will it all go to EV and and and and actually does EV is is is the electronic market interesting to you with haptics? Does it fit nicely with you?
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely, absolutely. So I I see I don't see a real shift from EV to or from from engine to EV or hybrid cars. I I personally like the idea of having a hybrid car, but that's personally that's just just a personal opinion on this. But um the haptics, especially our components, if you're talking about autonomous driving or if you're talking about EV cars, is definitely uh has a a lot of advantages. Um, we are talking now about surface haptics, but there are much more possibilities in regards to haptics. Uh, especially when we are talking about example about e-cars, uh, EV cars without the real engine feeling, because I don't have an engine and I drive a 440 series BMW, so I have a big engine. And I love the vibration of the engine, and I think I'm not the only person in the world loves engines. Uh so imagine you can still feel the vibration and hear the vibration of the of the engine uh in your seat.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, agree.
SPEAKER_01:So you see, there are a lot of possibilities there, also there about emotions, about the haptics bringing also the this emotional part uh back to back.
SPEAKER_00:Let me I think you're right. I think you're right. That makes sense. Um, we're not going to be able to stop the history of driving cars or automobiles, it's just not gonna happen, is it? So that feeling is part of the experience, isn't it? So so that can that will continue, it will evolve, but it will continue. I think you're right. Listen, it's been really good to talk to you. Um, just to remind listeners that you will be speaking on the morning of January the 21st, 2026, at Motorworld. You'll be touching on a lot of the topics that we've covered here, uh, particularly around haptics, as we have discussed. It's been an absolute pleasure talking to you. Thank you very much for giving us your time. We look forward to seeing you, and uh it'd be great to catch up with you face to face.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you so much. It was a great pleasure being here. And I'm really, really excited to the conference, Moto Word, of course, but uh also on the conference and uh giving much more insights um to the audience.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you, Elisa. Very kind.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you so much.
