New Mazda CX-5: A Unity HMI development journey

Customers aren’t buying technology. They’re buying experiences enabled by it. Akio Nakadachi, Engineering Manager, Cockpit Domain Controller Development, and Ryota Kimishima, Lead Engineer, Unity Team, both at Mazda Motor Corporation, share how Mazda created a better customer experience for the new CX-5 with Unity.

Discover why Mazda chose Unity, how its in-house Unity team and the partnership with Unity grew from 2024 to the 2026 launch, and what Mazda learned along the way about building a human-centric cockpit.

Watch the full video to learn how:

• Mazda’s philosophy of making drivers feel uplifted shapes its approach to the human-machine interface (HMI), and why 3D graphics are used to help drivers understand information faster, not to impress.
• Support in Japan, an active technical community, and a deep pool of Unity engineers led Mazda to choose Unity.
• Mazda established a dedicated Unity team and worked with Unity as a true engineering partnership, from architecture discussions to optimization.
• Reviewers and customers of the new CX-5 responded to the clarity, smooth animation, and responsiveness of its 3D-driven HMI.
• Mazda’s lessons: human-centric UX, clarity that builds confidence, performance as a basic expectation, HMI as brand experience, and architecture built for continuous evolution in the over-the-air (OTA) update era.
• Mazda sees Unity moving from visualization today to personalized, AI-assisted, and context-aware experiences, and what it expects from Unity on the way to its 2030 vision.

This session was recorded at the Unity Industry Summit in Munich, October 2026.