MotorTrend SDV Innovator Awards
Press Kit
ANNOUNCEMENT EMBARGOED UNTIL JANUARY 6, 2023 AT 6 A.M. EST
MotorTrend has announced the winners of the inaugural Software-Defined Vehicle Innovator (SDVI) awards, which were given out a private gala event in conjunction with the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The program was created in honor of the next phase of automobile technology, with a goal of elevating and shining a spotlight on those who are leading the automotive industry's tectonic transformation from hardware to software. MotorTrend created the awards as the automotive industry redefines how cars are designed, built, driven, and experienced. Winners were awarded in three categories, as chosen by MotorTrend'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. For a full list of winners and more details please see MotorTrend's SDVI award press release.
In an effort to underscore the importance of the emerging software-defined vehicle age and the need to recognize the industry disruption coming at the hands of these innovators and pioneers, MotorTrend also produced a 22-minute documentary, 'Coding the Car', and a book by the same title, which were released as companion pieces with the SDV Innovator Awards program announcement.
"The automotive industry will change more in the next five years than in the previous 50 years." - Olivier Blume, Chairman of the Executive Board, Porsche AG
Press Release
SDV Predictions, History, Investment & Facts
'Coding the Car' Documentary
22 Minutes | Embed Code
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In an effort to underscore the importance of the emerging software-defined vehicle age and the need to recognize the industry disruption coming at the hands of these innovators and pioneers, MotorTrend has produced a 22-minute documentary, 'Coding the Car', and a book by the same title, which are being released as companion pieces to the SDV Innovator Awards announcement.
'Coding the Car' Trailer Videos
![60 Second Trailer, 1080x1080 [social media]](http://www.motortrendpresskit.com/images/60promosocial.png)
'Coding the Car' Sound Bites
Autonomy
Sarah Tariq - VP, Autonomous Driving Software - NVIDIA
"That's what we want the algorithms to generalize to as well, to have to right to all these specific things but to understand and synthesize from their opus of knowledge this is the context, and this is what I need to do."
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Raj Manakkal - Assistant VP, Software as a Service - American Honda Motor Company
"They can even probably find a pattern, some person is braking five times within 7 seconds of a certain G value for example, a safety person can come in and say in this scenario maybe they're trying to avoid an object? you should look at the other factors of data and they will come up a scenario – oh this is what's probably happening. Recognition of unique patterns is where we're going to get the value."
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Connectivity
Magnus Östberg - Chief Software Officer - Mercedes-Benz AG
"What we are doing is building a ship to cloud architecture and making everyone understand that the mission to do this is all about getting the connection to the customer."
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Magnus Östberg - Chief Software Officer - Mercedes-Benz AG
"It was a clear demand from the customers that the brand-new Mercedes shouldn't just feel new when you get it from the dealer but continuously be fresh and updated."
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Sarah Tariq - VP, Autonomous Driving Software - NVIDIA
"As consumers we're not interested in buying something that is just never going to change instead being able to buy a thing like a car and say well it's going to get better and better over time and I don't have to replace it right away as I will get the things that really, for me, provide value."
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Chris Borroni-Bird - Founder Afreecar - Former Chief Engineer Waymo
"It allows you to do a software update that improves your whole fleet all at once and if you can charge for upgrades, because you're adding functionality, now you're monetizing over a much larger number of vehicles."
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Future
John Wall - SVP, Head of Operations for Technology Solutions - BlackBerry QNX
"The challenge is not getting data to the cloud, that's not a challenge, it's very doable cars will have 5G but when you start to think about smart cities and how is a car going to interact with the smart city then you start to realize that if every car is talking a different language with their data, this is going to be a problem."
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Michael Bell – SVP, Digital - Lucid Motors
"There really are no long-standing incumbents it's almost a clean sheet of paper…if you imagine it, you can go and create it. The rules around how these vehicles work haven't been written in stone yet, so for people who are creative and want to go help shape the future this is where you want to be."
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Larry Burns – Advisor and Author - Former GM Executive
"What is going to attract someone to spend their whole career with a company? I think it's the opportunity to have an impact, the sense that because of what I do every day I'm leaving my fingerprints on the world."
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Mamatha Chamarthi – Global SVP, Software and Business Management - Stellantis
"With technology now it's front and centre. In the car...it moved from back end to front and centre! This is the most fascinating transformation that I have seen in my life."
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Partnerships
Chris Borroni-Bird - Founder Afreecar - Former Chief Engineer Waymo
"Tech companies thought the auto industry was very slow moving and conservative and the auto companies thought the tech companies were very fast and loose but over the last five years you've begun to see a convergance of a greater appreciation of the benefits that each player provide and your seeing a lot more collaboration."
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Privacy
Wassym Bensaid - VP, Software Development - Rivian
"Privacy is a major design consideration in the way we define things in our software stack."
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Safety
Mamatha Chamarthi –– Global SVP, Software and Business Management - Stellantis
"95-96% of accidents happened because of distracted driving. So safer cars…so 1.2 million people can live every year and go back to their families. I think that for me is the biggest biggest benefit. "
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Chris Borroni-Bird - Founder Afreecar, former Chief Engineer Waymo
"Failures are so low because safety is so paramount that you make it work in a car that can operate in all weather conditions and all road conditions. It's going to be the complete platform for the future."
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SDV Overview
Larry Burns – Advisor and Author - Former GM Executive
"We can talk software-defined vehicles and that's really an exciting future. It's going to be software defined life! And that's really where this is headed."
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Scott Miller – VP, Software-Defined Vehicle and Operating System, General Motors
"The idea of the software-defined vehicle is we don't even know what features will be created in the future but the opportunity to customize it, the opportunity to add new features and the opportunity to add services, it's going to be words of magnitude more than anything we've seen before."
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'Coding the Car' Photo Gallery
People in 'Coding the Car'
VIDEO: "Get In: The Software-Defined Vehicle Podcast From BlackBerry" Interviews MotorTrend Executive Editor Ed Loh
By Steve Kovsky, Editorial Director
As this podcast series has attempted to document in the past year, the automotive industry is undergoing its most significant transformation in our lifetimes, on a scale unmatched since perhaps the Industrial Revolution. It's fair to say, I think it's a big deal. It's also fair to say, I'm not alone. Meet one such upstanding observer: Ed Loh, editor-in-chief of that iconic American chronicle of automotive achievement, MotorTrend. Ed stopped in at our virtual studio to share some breaking news about MotorTrend's future editorial directions and how he is aligning them with the tectonic moves taking place among and within the world's automakers. And I'm proud to add that BlackBerry is playing an important role in bringing these plans to fruition.
Watch the Video