Exclusive Interview with Unity's Xiao Beibei: Unity Engine's Focus is on Optimizing and Adapting to Domestic Platforms

On July 31st, DoNews reported that Unity China held the Unite Shanghai 2024 Developer Conference last week. During the conference, DoNews interviewed Xiao Beibei, Vice President of Unity China, to understand the development of the Unity engine and the latest progress of Unity China in the smart cockpit field.

Xiao Beibei introduced that the smart cockpit market in China is a rapidly growing area. With the transformation of the automotive industry towards intelligence and electrification, the market share is continuously expanding. The smart cockpit integrates human-machine interaction systems, including voice recognition, gesture control, facial recognition, etc., to provide a more natural and intuitive interactive experience.

By learning users' habits and preferences, it will provide more personalized services such as seat adjustment, temperature control, entertainment content recommendations, etc. With the popularization of 5G networks, smart cockpits will better realize the functions of connected vehicles, including communication between vehicles, vehicles and infrastructure, and vehicles and pedestrians.

Smart cockpits will be more closely integrated with autonomous driving technology, providing a smooth transition from assisted driving to fully autonomous driving. The role of software in creating value in automobiles will become increasingly important, and smart cockpits will be the core of software-defined functions and features. Physical buttons and controls inside the cockpit will continue to decrease, replaced by touch screens and digital displays, providing a more flexible interface and functionality.

To meet the needs of different users and vehicle models, smart cockpit design will be more customized and modular. Smart cockpits will seamlessly integrate with users' other smart devices (such as smartphones, smartwatches, etc.) to provide a continuous cross-device experience.

So far, more than 25 OEMs and over 60 models with Unity applications have been mass-produced and launched.

Unity Engine made its first appearance at the Beijing Auto Show in April this year. According to Xiao Beibei, the Chinese translation of Unity is "团结" (tuán jié), and the core issue that Unity Engine aims to solve is the optimization and adaptation support for domestic operating systems, domestic chips, and domestic mainstream platforms.

At the same time, the smart cockpit HMI (Human Machine Interface) business is a new business area that requires higher efficiency, foresight, and stability in both R&D and business aspects. Therefore, Unity Engine aims to achieve consistent goals, cross-departmental team collaboration, and continuous support for the sustainable use of domestic engine tools.

Currently, Unity Engine has released platform build servers for WebGL, open-source Hongmeng, BlackBerry QNX, embedded Linux, and Arm Linux. In the future, it will continue to continuously optimize and adapt to new platforms based on local domestic needs In the current highly competitive domestic new energy vehicle market, manufacturers may launch a new car in about a year and a half, and the update iteration speed of old models is also very fast. In response to this situation, Xiao Beibei stated that Unity China will communicate with the main manufacturers to roughly understand their vehicle plans and development methods.

If the other party adopts self-development and needs to launch multiple models within a year, Unity China will suggest that the car factory adopt a platform-based development route. They will design an architecture suitable for rapid iteration at the Android underlying level, including the Unity engine level, and consider the degree of code and asset reuse in the iteration of each subsequent model. By efficiently using the platform and rapidly iterating code resources, they aim to achieve the plan of launching a large number of models.

The better the platformization is done, the stronger the reusability will be. In the end, it will only be necessary to replace different vehicle models or add/remove some functions to achieve rapid iteration of models and functions.

Currently, intelligent cockpit HMI is facing the evolution from 2D plane to 3D solutions, which brings higher requirements for power consumption, software and hardware, and also means higher costs for end consumers. In this regard, Xiao Beibei believes that determining the specific cost and expected benefits of investing in 3D HMI technology needs to be comprehensively considered from 7 perspectives.

1. Technical Complexity and Equipment Performance Requirements

• Cost: Achieving high-quality 3D HMI design requires complex technical support, including graphic rendering, animation processing, interaction design, etc. Developers need to have professional technical knowledge and experience, which may increase labor and training costs.

• Benefits: High-quality 3D HMI design can provide more realistic and immersive visual effects, enhance user immersive experience, thereby improving user satisfaction and product market competitiveness.

2. User Experience Optimization

• Cost: 3D HMI design needs to focus on balancing user experience. Excessive use of 3D effects may lead to interface complexity, visual confusion, etc. Designers need to find a balance between 3D effects and the usability of the user interface, which may require more design and testing time.

• Benefits: Good user experience can increase user engagement and operational efficiency, reduce user learning costs, enhance product user stickiness and word-of-mouth.

3. Interaction Design Challenges

• Cost: 3D HMI design needs to face more complex interaction design challenges, such as voice recognition, eye tracking, voice control, etc. The development and integration of these interaction methods may increase technical difficulty and development costs.

• Benefits: More natural interaction methods can reduce user burden, improve user operational efficiency and convenience, thereby enhancing the overall user experience.

4. Cost and Time Investment

• Cost: Developing and implementing high-quality 3D HMI design usually requires more manpower, time, and resource investment. This may increase project costs and development cycles

• Earnings: High-quality 3D HMI design can provide a more engaging and interactive entertainment experience, as well as more intuitive, realistic navigation information and accurate, easy-to-understand driving guidance, thereby enhancing the product's market competitiveness and user satisfaction.

5. Technical Implementation and Customizability

• Cost: During the design process, designers need to closely collaborate with the development team to understand the feasibility and limitations of the technology. Designers should have relevant technical knowledge of 3D modeling, rendering, animation, and interaction principles and methods to ensure the feasibility and performance of the design.

• Earnings: Customizable 3D HMI design can meet users' personalized needs, enhancing user satisfaction and user experience.

6. Industry Trends and Market Demand

• Cost: With the rapid rise of the 3D HMI industry, major manufacturers are incorporating 3D elements, indicating a continuous increase in market demand. Companies need to continuously invest in research and innovation to maintain competitiveness.

• Earnings: With the increasing market demand, the application of 3D HMI technology will bring broader market opportunities and higher return on investment.

7. Selection of Technology and Tools

• Cost: Choosing the right 3D development tools and engines, such as Unreal Engine, Unity, Cinema 4D, and Blender, may affect development costs and outcomes. These tools have their own advantages and disadvantages in terms of functionality, usability, and community support.

• Earnings: Choosing the right tools can improve development efficiency, reduce technical barriers, shorten development cycles, and enhance product time-to-market.

By comprehensively considering the above factors, companies can more accurately assess the specific costs and expected returns of investing in 3D HMI technology, thereby making wiser investment decisions.