Huawei’s HDC 2026 developer conference, spotlight shifted toward the in-vehicle side of HarmonyOS NEXT. The company confirmed that a cockpit simulator for the platform will soon arrive inside DevEco Studio, giving developers a way to build and test apps before compatible hardware reaches the market. Alongside that update, Huawei shared a release roadmap that finally puts dates on a project many had only seen through early demos.
Timeline breaks into three phases, and each one arrives sooner than expected. A developer beta launches in June 2026, putting early builds in front of engineers. An in-vehicle beta follows in September 2026, when the software starts running on actual cars instead of simulators alone. By December 2026, Huawei expects a consumer commercial version, meaning drivers could see HarmonyOS NEXT cockpit software in production vehicles before year-end.
That pace matters because Huawei also opened its in-vehicle development SDK, inviting outside developers to build directly for the cockpit instead of adapting phone apps. With more than 8M developers active across an ecosystem that has now passed 1 billion devices, the company expects early SDK access to widen the app catalog once the commercial version arrives. One session, titled “Sharing Open Capabilities of the HarmonyOS NEXT Cockpit,” framed this stage as a shift from technical validation toward full ecosystem deployment, a sign Huawei considers the testing phase mostly complete.
Unlike earlier in-vehicle systems that relied on Android components, the HarmonyOS NEXT cockpit removes AOSP code entirely. Huawei rebuilt the architecture and interaction design from scratch, and the company says this approach produces a more responsive system that holds up better over extended use. Rather than cast a phone’s screen onto the car’s display, the NEXT cockpit runs apps natively, matching layouts and controls to driving scenarios instead of reusing phone designs.
The system also shares one design language across Huawei’s phones, tablets, and PCs, so moving between devices should feel familiar rather than jarring. Combined with a leaner kernel, this gives Huawei a clear case for the NEXT cockpit being a meaningful step up from systems that still carry Android-derived code underneath.
Not every new feature is heading straight to the NEXT cockpit, though. Huawei revealed that it had planned the AITO M9’s new cockpit interface for the NEXT platform. So why debut it elsewhere first? Competing automakers already ship similar designs, and Huawei wants the AITO M9 to stay competitive while the NEXT version continues to mature.
Of course, a live demonstration of the NEXT cockpit simulator backed up that decision. Several features remain unfinished, which suggests that while the roadmap looks aggressive, the underlying software still needs work before it reaches actual drivers.
Huawei’s vehicle software lineup is more layered than a single roadmap suggests. Current HarmonyOS Intelligent Automotive models run HarmonyOS 4.3, while Kunlun-brand vehicles use HarmonySpace 5 or 6. Huawei hasn’t clarified how HarmonySpace 6 will relate to the NEXT cockpit. Development of the NEXT cockpit sits with Huawei’s Terminal BG and runs independently from the Kunlun HarmonySpace line, giving those vehicles a dedicated path forward.
If the 2026 roadmap holds, HarmonyOS NEXT cockpit will spend less time being next and more time being now.
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