Connecting Mazda to the Future of Cars: How Software Engineers are Pursuing Jinba-Ittai Through Interface Design

HMI display in the MAZDA6e.

The gaming industry sees a lot of career movement, and last autumn I was looking for a new opportunity that could offer me fresh challenges and career growth. I remembered reading in spring that Mazda is partnering with Unity. Unity is a development platform used worldwide for games and apps. I’d worked with it for years, so I thought my experience might apply to real-world products. That’s what made me apply to Mazda.

Ryota Kimishima joined Mazda in 2024. He started creating games and music as a student, then worked on game app development and VR/metaverse projects after graduating. At Mazda, he belongs to the Connected Software Development Group within the Infotainment and Control Model Development Department, Integrated Control Systems Development Division,  applying Unity knowledge and experience gained from game development to automotive HMI and GUI development.

I’d been deep into game and app development since university. My club at university exhibited video games at events, and I freelanced on app projects for companies. My first job was working in development for social games and apps, and at my second and third companies, I worked on game titles that most people would probably recognize. My fourth company wasn’t gaming at all. I jumped into VR and metaverse work, building platforms where people could have real conversations in virtual spaces. My creative work gradually moved from virtual game worlds toward virtual reality, getting closer to the real world. That’s when I saw the Mazda-Unity announcement.

Well, my family always drove Mazda cars, and I’ve been a fan of the MX-5 since I was young. So yes, there’s always been a connection there. It almost feels like fate that I came here.

Kimishima attended his Mazda job interview using VR avatar streaming software he’d developed in Unity. With his resume and work history laid out on the table, and past projects displayed on screens and in the virtual space, his VR interview won over the hiring team.

I mainly develop and optimize Graphical User Interface (GUI) elements. This includes 3D graphics on meters and displays, and touch panels that let you operate things intuitively. For example, onscreen 3D graphics that alert drivers to elements that are hard to see from the driver’s seat like "headlights on" or “right rear door open." Or realistic graphics of the car interior showing air flowing from the vents, to visualize how well the air conditioning is working. I’m building interfaces that help users see and understand clearly what’s happening with their car in real time.

An image of GUI currently in development. The car’s exterior is displayed in 3D on the screen, allowing real-time visualization of doors opening and closing, lights turning on and off, and other functions.

The operations and information drivers need has increased dramatically. In the past, you just had to handle the basics like accelerator, brake, and steering wheel. Now we have air conditioning, audio, navigation, and recently things like motor control and advanced safety features that need to communicate with drivers in real time. Before, it was only the driver who could perceive and operate the car, but now cars have similar abilities and can control many functions autonomously. But ultimately, it’s the driver that still makes the final decisions and operates the controls.

Even with complete autonomous driving, people would feel anxious if no car information appeared on screen and they had to trust everything to the vehicle. When AI is driving, you need clear visualization of how the AI is making decisions, plus the ability for humans to intervene when it makes mistakes. Either way, as technology advances, we’ll need more human-centric interfaces that can translate and communicate the car’s status while supporting human judgment and operation.

First, we draw on methods for optimizing visuals in gaming. With some gaming devices, if you focus on rich, realistic graphics, the system slows down, drains the battery faster, or the device overheats. The gaming industry has adopted “stylization” as a way to make things look more realistic within the device’s spec limitations. This is where game engineers and designers can really show their skills.

Actually, the SoCs* that power GUI in cars aren’t the latest generation. We deliberately use SoCs that are one or two generations older to ensure reliability through better heat management. Naturally, their processing power and loading speeds are somewhat limited compared to the newest ones. Thinking how to create realistic, understandable graphics and stress-free interfaces within the resource constraints is where our gaming industry knowledge and Unity development expertise really pay off.

*SoC: System on Chip, integrates CPU, GPU, memory and other system components on a single chip.

Whether in games or with car HMI and GUI, the feel of operation and the response speeds are crucial. Our job as software engineers is to eliminate that sense of disconnect and frustration when things don’t work as expected. That’s why partnerships between automakers and Unity were inevitable.
Another advantage of Unity is that it’s a democratized game engine. As engineers worldwide use it as a common language, collaboration with other companies becomes smoother, and it’s easier to bring in engineers from other industries.

Game development experience of constantly thinking about how to move people emotionally is now being applied to car development, says Kimishima.

In car software development, the real stars should be the car itself and the person operating it. That’s why I place value on designing controls that work intuitively. If a game or VR UI requires focused attention to operate, it breaks immersion. In cars, this attention takes away the safety awareness that should be your primary focus, making driving itself difficult.
To ensure driver safety and pure driving pleasure, I want to minimize how much attention gets directed toward HMI and GUI. My ideal would be interfaces that act like stagehands, connecting people and cars while staying in the background.

Those issues aren’t always caused by the touch panel itself. Often there are problems with the underlying system or UX design. For example, a button might look ready to press but actually isn’t responsive yet, or the touch detection area might be too small so you think you pressed it but it didn’t register. These small frustrations create that sense of being difficult to tell or slow to respond.
This is another area where Unity will be valuable, helping us build interfaces optimized specifically for car touch panels. There are many ways to achieve intuitive control and stress-free smooth interactions. Depending on the application, physical buttons might work better, or we could use cutting-edge technologies like voice recognition and gesture control. I want to combine these effectively to create HMI and GUI that is human-centered and delivers optimal functionality for today’s drivers.

The fundamental point is that what makes a car a car comes from hardware like the chassis, body, and powertrain. Software only exists to complement that. Going forward, no matter how much cars change, I want to use software engineering to preserve that comfortable, meaningful connection between people and their cars, which is at the heart of Mazda’s human-centric design philosophy. I think our group name, Connected Software Development Group , reflects exactly this approach.

When I first started at Mazda, I worked from the Kasumigaseki office, but since that wasn’t a software development hub, I felt some limitations. The new facility at Azabudai Hills has a high-speed, reliable network infrastructure, which has greatly improved our working environment. IT companies compete to get into the latest downtown buildings partly because of the power and communication infrastructure.

The relocated Tokyo office and new Mazda R&D Center Tokyo began full operation in July 2025. This new facility is expected to enable collaboration across industries beyond just automotive.

It’s also made face-to-face communication with partner companies and team members much easier. Since we want to create products that move people emotionally, rather than everyone quietly developing according to specifications, collaboration and communication with colleagues is essential. In my team, we don’t just have the developer test prototypes. We actively get other people to try them and give feedback, maintaining a user-focused development approach through active communication.
From this new Azabudai Hills base, I want to keep creating software that is human-centered and embodies Mazda’s Jinba-ittai philosophy.

Mazda’s new facility features many co-working spaces, creating an environment where employees can easily communicate, from work-related discussions to casual conversations.

Right now, I’m working on the development tasks in front of me while building our Connected Software Development Group  as a team. To tackle big challenges, you need more than individual knowledge and skills. You need to work together as a team with colleagues pursuing the same goals. My goal is to achieve Mazda’s distinctive approach to manufacturing as quickly as possible while staying true to Mazda’s human-centered philosophy and embracing a collaborative mindset.

There’s something else too. Software content built for online use disappears when servers and services shut down. But cars are products that can last for years, carefully maintained and passed down, or displayed in museums. Imagine if a Mazda MX-5 in a museum contained software I created. Even 100 years from now, if someone started the engine, that software might boot up. I think that’s incredibly inspiring. My dream is to create products that connect across generations, and I hope that someday a car I helped develop software for will inspire someone and spark new creativity in future software engineers and creators.

Kimishima emphasizes that the real stars of cars are the vehicle itself and the humans who operate it. Mazda’s human-centered philosophy has taken firm root even in software engineers who came from other industries.