IAA MOBILITY 2025: The HMI Speed Gap Challenge

IAA Mobility 2025 was buzzing with energy, sleek concept cars, and cutting-edge tech. If you didn't catch us in Munich, here's what you missed and how you can experience it now through a live demo. Among the innovation showcases, a quiet revolution was underway: a high-stakes race between East and West that's reshaping the automotive industry.

While our booth drew crowds with live demos, conversations kept returning to one urgent question: how can traditional European OEMs match the lightning-fast innovation of their Chinese counterparts?

The answer lies not just in having the best ideas but in getting them to market faster.

Didn't catch us at IAA? Book your demo now to see what the automotive industry is talking about.

The 18-Month vs. 3-Year Divide

The contrast at this year's show was stark. Chinese manufacturers are moving at breakneck speed, pushing out new HMI designs in just 18 to 24 months. Their approach? Ship a functional HMI and refine it through over-the-air updates. It's bold, agile, and effective.

European counterparts operate in a different paradigm. They focus on delivering polished, perfect products, often stretching development cycles to two or three years. It's the perfectionist's paradox: the longer you spend perfecting, the more you risk obsolescence.

This speed gap represents a critical challenge, and it's exactly where ProtoPie makes the difference.

Prototyping at the Speed of Innovation

At ProtoPie, we empower designers and engineers to move at the speed of thought. When HMI systems fall short, the solution isn't waiting; it's prototyping and iterating faster than ever. Our IAA 2025 demos proved this approach delivers measurable business results.

What We Demonstrated (And What You Can Experience in Your Demo)

The Connected Rear Seat Experience: We prototyped an entire multi-device passenger journey, from streaming movies to gaming with Xbox controllers, without writing a single line of code. This comprehensive approach lets teams validate complex user flows in days rather than months, dramatically reducing time-to-market and development costs.

Watch how Cobi Stancik demonstrates ProtoPie's real-time, multi-device testing, including variables, transitions, and instant feedback from device to device, allowing teams to iterate on the spot and accelerate validation:

AI-Powered Conversational Cockpit: Visitors spoke directly to a live AI powered by ChatGPT, experiencing truly intelligent, multi-language voice assistants. No pre-recorded demos, no backend dependencies, just real, responsive AI interaction. Teams can now cut development costs and validate usability before committing to full builds, preventing costly rework cycles.

Watch how Rowand Mohammad showcased a live navigation HMI powered by Mapbox, hardware integration, and an AI assistant for high-fidelity testing that bridges AI-driven usability with hardware realism:

Immersive VR Prototyping: Attendees sat in virtual cockpits, interacting with live HMI designs in 3D environments. By validating screen layouts and user flows before investing in physical hardware, teams reduce rework and accelerate their path to market.

Watch how Aley Baracat puts the user in a VR cockpit enabled through integration with Unity and allowing them to change colors, explore dashboards, and test interactions in 3D for early validation:

AI-Driven Vehicle Diagnostics: Instead of cryptic warning lights, our prototype delivered clear, natural-language guidance on vehicle issues. This proactive, AI-driven approach reduces driver stress while improving automotive UX and lowering long-term support costs.

Hardware-Connected HMI: We demonstrated a ProtoPie interface controlling a real car model, proving you can prototype and test features like remote parking with actual hardware feedback. Testing functionality at the prototype stage saves significant engineering time and budget downstream.

Explore how your team can apply these workflows. Request a walkthrough to see these demos in action.

Don't Wait to Bridge the Innovation Gap

The automotive industry is transforming rapidly, and speed matters more than ever. Every month of delay means falling further behind competitors who are shipping faster, iterating quicker, and capturing market share.

We work with both European and Asian OEMs, giving us unique insight into what drives successful HMI development at speed. The companies winning this race aren't just building better products; they're building them faster without sacrificing quality.

ProtoPie isn't just a prototyping tool; it's the competitive advantage that helps designers and engineers build the innovative, intuitive automotive UX that modern consumers demand. The future belongs to teams that can combine speed with realism.

If you missed us at IAA, don't wait to catch up. The innovation gap is widening every day, and your competitors aren't slowing down.

Ready to accelerate your HMI development? Book a demo today and experience what's driving the future of automotive innovation.