Imagine being able to design and test the user interface of a cutting-edge car within a fraction of the time it takes today. Sounds like science fiction, but it’s becoming a reality thanks to the collaboration between Elektrobit and Ottawa Infotainment.
With the growing complexity of modern vehicles, UI and UX teams face significant challenges in bringing design concepts to life. It’s a tedious and time-consuming process that involves transferring designs from desktop tools like Figma to Android-based automotive environments. However, Elektrobit and Ottawa Infotainment are now working together to bridge this gap.
Their collaboration focuses on reducing development time for next-generation automotive user interfaces by enabling faster validation of design concepts on production-intent hardware. The partnership brings together Elektrobit’s EB civion Creator product suite with Ottawa Infotainment’s DragonFire Pro domain controller. This powerful combination helps OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers move UI concepts from design tools into Android-based automotive environments with greater speed and confidence.
## A New Era in UI Development
One of the most significant advantages of this collaboration is its ability to address the gap between design and real-world validation. While interfaces are often created in desktop tools, validating those designs inside an early-production intent vehicle typically requires long engineering cycles and extensive rework. Customers have consistently asked for a more direct path from Figma-level designs to Android running on automotive-grade hardware.
Electrobit’s EB civion Creator product suite is an innovative tool that enables cloud-native cockpit development, theming, and rapid iteration of digital interfaces. Ottawa Infotainment’s role in the collaboration is focused on deploying and validating these capabilities on production-ready domain controller hardware. This allows OEM teams to evaluate usability, performance, and system behavior much earlier in the development process.
## Benefits for OEMs and Suppliers
The benefits of this collaboration are numerous. By deploying EB civion Creator on the DragonFire Pro domain controller, OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers can bring UI concepts into early-production intent vehicles faster, shortening feedback loops between design, engineering, and program teams. This not only saves time but also reduces the risk of costly rework and delays.
From an engineering perspective, the collaboration enables faster iteration and earlier decision-making. “When we work with OEM clients, our goal is to deploy customer ideas quickly into early production-intent vehicles, and evaluate them under real conditions,” said Jonathan Hacker, Chief Technology Officer at Ottawa Infotainment. “We can now take Figma-level designs and validate them on Android running directly on automotive hardware. This dramatically shortens validation cycles and is a huge win for our customers.”
## A Bright Future Ahead
The collaboration between Elektrobit and Ottawa Infotainment marks a significant milestone in the evolution of automotive UI development. As the automotive industry continues to transform and become increasingly software-defined, the need for efficient and effective UI development tools has never been more pressing.
By working together, Elektrobit and Ottawa Infotainment are empowering OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers to build future-ready solutions with speed and confidence. This partnership is set to revolutionize the way UI and UX teams work, making it possible to design and test the user interface of a cutting-edge car within a fraction of the time it takes today. The future of automotive UI development has never looked brighter.
About Elektrobit
Electrobit is the trusted partner in the transition to the software-defined vehicle (SDV). With over 35 years of award-winning automotive software expertise, Elektrobit’s innovative portfolio and comprehensive SDV ecosystem empower OEMs, Tier 1s, along with ODMs and Big Tech to build future-ready solutions with speed and confidence. Its SDV building blocks include operating systems, middleware, embedded software, digital cockpit solutions, engineering services, and development workflows – driving faster innovation and seamless integration across the vehicle lifecycle. Elektrobit software powers over five billion devices in more than 630 million vehicles worldwide. It is a wholly owned, independently operated subsidiary of AUMOVIO.
About Ottawa Infotainment
Ottawa Infotainment develops production-ready automotive domain controllers, compute platforms, and SDV software systems for OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers. Its DragonFire OS and DragonFire Pro domain controller provide modular, scalable foundations for next-generation infotainment, cockpit, and vehicle systems integration.
