Winners were awarded in three categories, as chosen byMotorTrend's panel of jurors, from a nominations pool of 40 industry leaders. The original finalists, announced at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November, included innovators from 19 automakers.

"MotorTrendis proud to announce the winners of the inaugural Software-Defined Vehicle Innovator awards," said MotorTrend Group head of editorial, Ed Loh. "The software-defined vehicle movement is redefining how cars are designed, built, driven, and experienced, so we are pleased to highlight this paradigm shift by shining a spotlight on the Pioneers, Leaders, and Domain Experts who've led this automotive revolution."

2301 MT PIONEER AWARDS WINNERS Software Defined Vehicle Innovator Awards SDVI 1

These outstanding individuals have demonstrably broken new ground within the SDV space through research, development, and application of new automotive software.

Drago Anguelov, Head of Waymo Research, Waymo, for his pioneering research in autonomous driving systems.
Yves Bonnefont, Chief Software Officer, Stellantis, for his work in bringing cutting edge software systems to 14 brands of a major automotive multinational.
Craig Carlson, CTO and co-CEO at Carbon, Carbon, for the electronic systems in the world's first SDVs, the Tesla Roadster and Model S.
Doug Field, Chief Advanced Product Development and Technology Officer, Ford Motor Company, for his pioneering work at Segway, GM, Tesla, Apple and now Ford.
Dave Nesbitt, Director of Digital Platform Products, Jaguar Land Rover, for his work in bringing cutting edge infotainment, OTA and apps to two of the most storied British brands.
Prof. Amnon Shashua, Founder, President and CEO, Mobileye, for his pioneering work in computer vision in ADAS systems.
Lei Zhang, Global VP, Digital Cockpit and Software Development, Nio, for his pioneering work in digital cockpit and artificial intelligence assistants.

2301 MT LEADER AWARDS WINNERS Software Defined Vehicle Innovator Awards SDVI

These outstanding individuals are in a senior management position and lead a team that is transforming the automotive industry through the broad adoption and application of software solutions.

Hyung Ki Ahn, Vice President, Head of Electronics Development Group, Hyundai Motor Group, for his work leading electronics development, from connectivity to face and fingerprint recognition as part of the creation of a new software-defined vehicle platform.
Steve Basra, Group VP of Connected Technologies at Toyota Motor North America, Toyota Connected North America, for his work on Toyota Connected, occupant safety, and advances in natural speech assistant.
Wendy Bauer, General Manager, AWS Automotive, AWS at Amazon, for helping the industry unlock the power of data and use cloud technology to accelerate their digital transformation.
Wassym Bensaid, Senior Vice President of Software Development, Rivian

2301 MT LEADER AWARDS WINNERS Software Defined Vehicle Innovator Awards SDVI 2

Nakul Duggal, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Automotive, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
Magnus Östberg, Chief Software Officer, Mercedes-Benz AG, for his work driving MB OS and "Hey Mercedes" and creating a massive new Electric Software hub with more than 1,100 experts.
Darren Palmer, Vice President, Electric Vehicle Programs, Ford Model e, Ford Motor Company, for his push to EVs, from Team Edison to the Ford Mach-E architecture, followed by the F-150 Lightning, and more electric vehicle programs to come.
Maarten Sierhuis, Vice President and Alliance Global Director, Nissan Alliance Innovation Lab - Silicon Valley
Sarah Tariq, Vice President of Autonomous Driving Software, Nvidia, for her work on Nvidia's AI and level 4 autonomous technology for next-generation fleet vehicles and greater mobility for all.

2301 MT DOMAIN EXPERT AWARD WINNERS Software Defined Vehicle Innovator Awards SDVI