Waymo, Waabi, Volvo, Wayve, Euro NCAP and Parallel Domain are the winners of the second ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle International Awards, recognizing industry innovation in vehicle safety and automated driving.
The winners were announced during a live ceremony on June 24, at Autonomous Vehicle Tech Expo, part of Vehicle Tech Week (June 23-25, 2026).
Coordinated by ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle International (AAVI) magazine, the awards celebrate the very best innovations and new technologies across the ADAS and autonomous mobility sector from the last 18 months, acknowledging the achievements of the most remarkable projects and companies.
The awards are officiated by a panel of international industry experts who put forward their nominations for each of the five categories, with the final winners chosen by AAVI’s international subscribers. “While the debate around how best to deliver future transportation infrastructure and vehicle technology continues to divide opinion, these awards honor the hard-working engineering teams behind the most noteworthy achievements that are driving safer, smarter and more sustainable mobility solutions,” commented AAVI’s editor, Anthony James.
Vehicle Deployment of the Year
The first trophy of the evening went to Waymo 
(which won the same category last year), in recognition of its continued rapid expansion across the US and beyond. Members of the public can now ride in a driverless Waymo robotaxi in 11 cities across the US, with a further four locations currently undergoing trials. “Outside of the US, Waymo has begun testing in both London and Tokyo,” said James.
“Meanwhile, the technology behind the wheel – the Waymo Driver – has served over 20 million fully autonomous trips – with its latest vehicle, the Ojai, the first to debut the sixth-generation Waymo Driver, designed for winter conditions.”
Safety Innovation of the Year
Euro NCAP, another winner from last year, was next on stage, this time to pick up the safety innovation trophy for its new ADAS, driver monitoring, crash avoidance and post-crash safety requirements, as well as new virtual testing protocols. “Euro NCAP has made major changes to how it evaluates the safety of new cars, to better represent modern driving conditions and address the road hazards faced by today’s drivers, passengers and other road users,” said James. “New protocols introduced in 2026 have updated testing methodologies, while focusing on four key safety stages: safe driving, crash avoidance, crash protection and post-crash safety.”
Collaboration of the Year
Waabi and Volvo Autonomous Solutions 
collected the Collaboration of the Year award, having reached a major autonomous trucking milestone toward the end of last year when they first successfully integrated the Waabi Driver with the purpose-built Volvo VNL Autonomous truck. “By pairing Waabi’s powerful breakthroughs in physical AI with Volvo’s leadership in autonomous trucks, the two companies are developing autonomous solutions designed to meet the freight industry’s needs now and in the future,” James explained.
Disrupter of the Year
Wayve, the winner of the same category last year, was once again voted the Disrupter of the Year by the readers of AAVI magazine. The company continues to shake up the sector with its AI-driven, mapless autonomous driving technology that adapts to diverse vehicles and environments using end-to-end deep learning. “Fresh from signing a partnership with the UK government, Wayve also continues to collaborate with leading OEMs and big tech firms such as Stellantis, Uber, Nissan, Qualcomm and Nvidia,” noted James.
Start-up of the Year
The final award, this year’s start-up trophy, went to Parallel Domain, a pioneer in turning real-world capture into geometrically accurate, physically valid, semantically labeled, HD-mapped digital twins. James commented: “A leader in scene reconstruction and realistic sensor simulation, its proprietary scene reconstruction from drive log and simulation technologies deliver photorealistic, labeled sensor data on demand, accelerating safe autonomy with realism that scales.”
The Vehicle Tech Week Trailblazer Awards celebrate emerging forces of change – recognizing outstanding professionals who elevate standards, accelerate innovation and inspire progress within their disciplines. Together, they reflect the spirit of Vehicle Tech Week Europe: visionary, insightful and endlessly inventive. The Autonomous Vehicle Trailblazer Award recognizes leaders advancing intelligent, automated mobility by integrating AI, perception, simulation and resilient system design into scalable platforms that turn the vision of self‑driving transport into reality.
The 2026 award went to David Keene MBE, CEO, Aurrigo, who was recognized for successfully overseeing the rapid expansion of Aurrigo’s self‑driving technology into the aviation sector.
Learn more about the awards here.
Keep checking the AAVI website for highlights from the event, which runs until Thursday, 25 June. Click here to register for your free pass to Vehicle Tech Week Europe 2026
