Automotive UX Design with ProtoPie and RemotiveLabs

The Challenges of Automotive HMI Testing

Testing automotive HMI (Human-Machine Interfaces) in actual prototype cars under real-world conditions is an option that rarely presents itself to the UX and product teams of automotive OEMs. They often resort to suboptimal workarounds, like static mockups, which lack interactivity and fail to deliver an authentic test user experience. This creates ripple effects across the entire product development cycle.

Here’s a quick rundown of the problem at hand:

Limited Access to Real-World Testing

• Testing HMIs in actual prototype cars is a rare luxury for UX and product teams.
• Most teams rely on static mockups that lack interactivity and fail to simulate real driving conditions.

Consequences of Low-Fidelity Prototypes

• UX issues often surface only after development has begun, making fixes time-consuming and expensive.
• What could’ve been a simple design tweak becomes a complex, multi-team fix.

Even High-End Setups Fall Short

• Even the seating bucks, used to simulate a cockpit, fail to recreate real driving conditions.
• Simulated environments often rely on game-like data, missing the nuances of actual road scenarios.

Why “Close Enough” Isn’t Enough

• In the automotive industry, HMI is not just about aesthetics; it’s about driver safety.
• Interactions must be intuitive and distraction-free to prevent accidents.
• That’s why it's essential to test HMIs as close to the real product as possible, using real-world data and interactions.

Enter RemotiveLabs & ProtoPie: A Game-Changing Combo

To overcome the challenges of realistic UX testing, you need two key ingredients:

1. An HMI that looks and behaves like the final product.
2. Real driving data that powers interactions in real time.

That’s exactly what ProtoPie and RemotiveLabs deliver, together.

With ProtoPie, static mockups are transformed into interactive, high-fidelity prototypes trusted by companies like BMW and Mercedes to accelerate development and shift testing earlier in the process. Designers and product teams can easily build prototypes that go far beyond basic visuals, enabling real interactions and logic.

But visual realism is only half the battle. For prototypes to truly reflect real-world conditions, they need real data. That’s where RemotiveLabs steps in. With RemotiveCloud, you can feed actual vehicle data into your prototype in just a few clicks. Whether you're simulating driving scenarios or connecting to a live vehicle, RemotiveLabs makes it easy. With RemotiveBroker, you can even stream real-time car data directly into your Pie.

This combination doesn’t just look like the final product; it acts like it, too. And that’s what makes it so powerful.

Interested in how you can use ProtoPie and RemotiveLabs to create an interactive high-fidelity prototype using real car data? Read a step-by-step tutorial here!

From Zero to Tested in Seconds

Leveraging interactive high-fidelity prototyping in combination with real-world data opens up a whole new world when it comes to automotive UX design. It shifts the entire ideation and iteration process to the left in the development cycle.

Here’s what it unlocks:

• Faster Iteration: Designers can test and refine concepts in realistic environments long before a line of production code is written.
• Sharper User Insights: Real data enables more accurate, scenario-specific testing, revealing interaction flaws that static prototypes often miss.
• Reduced Development Costs: Catching usability issues early eliminates the need for expensive fixes down the line.
• Safer Interfaces: Prototypes powered by actual vehicle data allow teams to validate critical interactions under realistic driving conditions.

Explore how ProtoPie users are already leveraging RemotiveLabs’ platform here!

The Road Ahead

By combining ProtoPie and RemotiveLabs, companies can create prototypes that not only look like the final product but behave like it, too. This allows for more authentic, data-driven user testing far earlier in the design process than typically possible.

The result? Sharper insights, faster iterations, and significantly more confidence before entering development. This approach doesn’t just impress stakeholders - it fundamentally changes the way automotive companies validate their UX design. And the best part? It’s a repeatable process that any designer and engineer in any industry can adopt.

Join us on the road ahead towards the future of automotive UX.

You can also contact us directly to request a customized demo of our solution!