Consistent Kaluza-Klein truncations to maximal supergravities in $D=2$ spacetime dimensions remain "terra incognita". Using techniques based on exceptional geometry, I will present the scalar potential of all gauged supergravities that admit a consistent embedding in ten or eleven dimensions. This provides the first general expression for a multitude of theories with an interesting structure of vacua, covering potentially many new $AdS_2$ cases. As a concrete example, I will discuss the consistent truncation of IIA supergravity on the eight-sphere to $SO(9)$ gauged maximal supergravity. Fluctuations around its supersymmetric $SO(9)$-invariant vacuum holographically describe the dynamics of interacting $D0$-branes.