Automotive & Transportation

Turbocharge your digital transformation.

Review concepts and design HMIs. Test engineering scenarios and create digital twins. Build photorealistic configurators. Traditional automotive pipelines are a thing of the past. Futureproof your business for the road ahead with Unreal Engine.

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The latest news for automotive & transportation

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April 30, 2026

April’s Epic learning content: PCG, MetaHuman, mobile development, and more

This month’s free Epic learning content is here—skill up with tutorials on mobile performance, PCG, EOS, MetaHumans, lighting fixes, and beyond. Discover new techniques and workflows for tools across the Epic ecosystem.

Learning

March 11, 2026

Top tips on using Substrate materials for automotive visualization

We asked three experts in automotive visualization for their top tips on achieving realistic results with Substrate, Unreal Engine’s powerful material authoring system. Find out what they had to say.

Spotlight

Features for automotive

Unreal Engine ships with everything you need to create stunning immersive real-time experiences, engaging 3D configurators, state-of-the-art HMIs, and offline-rendered-quality linear media in less time than you thought possible.

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A robust pipeline for automotive visualization

Quickly and easily convert CAD data from many sources at high fidelity, and make updates to it on the fly with Datasmith Direct Link. Automate your data cleanup and optimization tasks with Dataprep tools and Python scripting; easily create configurators with the Variant Manager and Blueprint visual scripting; and deliver unique features with complete access to the UE5 source code.

Blueprint visual scripting

Source code

Photorealistic real-time rendering

Access and fine-tune 164 physically based automotive-themed materials. Get true-to-life reflections, refractions, soft shadows, and HDRI-based lighting with ray tracing and path tracing. Turn on dynamic global illumination that reacts to changes in direct lighting or geometry on the fly. And bring in entire vehicles at their original polycounts with Nanite virtualized geometry.

Automotive Materials Pack

Ray tracing and path tracing

Lumen dynamic global illumination

Nanite virtualized geometry

One asset, every deliverable

Once your data is in Unreal Engine, you can leverage it anyway you want: create gorgeous high-res stills and videos; compelling immersive VR digital showrooms; next-level HMIs with film-quality effects like fire, smoke, dust, and water; and even cloud-based configurators, delivered to anyone, anywhere with an internet connection and a web browser.

Automotive success stories

From VR to HMI: why Lotus is still one of auto’s biggest disruptors

Discover how Lotus is continuing to push boundaries by going all in on real-time technology, from virtual production to HMI.

Lotus

Rivian brings adventurous spirit to new display UI powered by Unreal Engine

Explore how Rivian’s second generation R1 vehicles will expand its use of Unreal Engine from the driver’s display to the full infotainment center across its existing fleet.

Rivian

Behind Volvo Cars’ new electric HMI program

By using Unreal Engine to create a clear, responsive HMI, Volvo Cars aims to enhance the driver experience on the road to a zero-collision future. Take a look.

Volvo Cars

USA’s largest car maker builds HMI systems in Unreal Engine

Epic’s human machine interface initiative drives forward, with General Motors’ new all-electric HUMMER set to go to market with a HMI system built on Unreal Engine

General Motors

Let’s get started.

Ready to make the jump into real-time 3D? Check out our recommended tutorials, samples, and documentation pages to help you get going.

Tutorials

Go to library

Your First Hour in Unreal Engine 5.2

Course · 3 years ago

This course will introduce you to the high-level basics of Unreal Engine 5 and the editor used to work within it. We’ll look at how to add assets, create lighting, make Blueprints, and even share your project.

Driving Around: Exploring Chaos Vehicles

Talks & Demos · 4 years ago

Chaos Vehicles is Unreal Engine's lightweight system for performing vehicle physics simulations. In this video, we go over the system’s features and the basics of how to set up your own wheeled vehicle from scratch.

BeginPlay

Learning Path · 4 years ago

As such a powerful tool, Unreal Engine can be a lot to take in, which is why understanding its foundations is so important when starting out. BeginPlay, a constantly evolving survey of Unreal Engine's features, is designed to help with that.

Documentation

Know what you want to do, but not how? Dig into our wide range of documentation to find your footing!

Working with Scene Variants

Datasmith

Cinematics and Sequencer

Virtual Camera

Go to Documentation

Licensing

We’ve streamlined our license terms to make your choices clearer. Need something designed just for you? Work with us to create a custom license. Visit our FAQ or reach out to the community if you have any questions.

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Free

Game developers (royalties apply after $1 million USD gross product revenue)
Individuals and small businesses (with less than $1 million USD in annual gross revenue)
For educators and schools (no revenue limits)

Access to the source code
All platforms & features
Forums and documentation on the Epic Developer Community

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Over $1 million USD in revenue?

Royalty-based

If you're creating a game or application that relies on engine code at runtime and will be licensed to third party end users, you'll pay royalties and won't be required to purchase seats.

Seat-based

If you're using Unreal Engine for commercial purposes, have generated more than $1 million in the past 12 months, and are not creating a game or application that relies on engine code at runtime and will be licensed to third party end users, then a seat license fee is required.

Unreal Engine is just the beginning.

Discover our collection of creative tools, content, and resources to help turn your ideas into reality.

MetaHuman

Customize and animate highly realistic digital human characters for use in your Unreal Engine projects.

Take a look

Unreal Editor for Fortnite

Wow fans and reach new audiences by building playable, branded experiences in Fortnite.

Dive in

RealityScan

Produce high-fidelity 3D models from laser scans and photos that you can use in your real-time scenes.

Find out more

Handheld AR template

Set up your own handheld AR application that can be used to overlay a 3D digital model of a vehicle onto real-world surfaces.

Jump in

Automotive Field Guide

Explore the latest trends, use cases, and technologies driving real-time innovation in the automotive industry today.

Read on

Quixel Megascans

Browse the world’s largest library of AAA, cinema-quality assets based on real-world scan data, ready for use in your projects.

Explore now

Twinmotion

Quickly visualize initial design concepts and create stunning marketing renders—all without the need to code.

Check it out

Collab Viewer template

Get started with collaborative VR and desktop design reviews that join multiple people together in a shared experience of the same 3D content.

Jump in

Car Configurator sample

Browse the world’s largest library of AAA, cinema-quality assets based on real-world scan data, ready for use in your projects.

Take a look

Looking to use the Unreal Engine logo in your project? Access our brand guidelines and logos here.

Need help?

Connect with creators across industries and around the globe. Share everything from shortcuts to snippets to secret shader tricks. When you use Unreal Engine, you’re never alone—our community of hundreds of thousands of developers is here to support you as you bring your idea to life.

Dev Community Forums

Ask and answer questions; show off your work and get inspiration from others.

Unreal Source

Come hang out with us and our developer community on Discord.