This year’s Autonomous main event marked the fifth anniversary of the Spotlight Session “From Concept to Reality: Enabling Safe, Trustworthy, and Software-Defined Autonomous Systems with European Innovation,” hosted by Andreas Eckel (TTTech), coordinator of HAL4SDV. The session showcased Europe’s strong leadership in advancing safe and secure software-defined autonomy, clearly demonstrating how European innovation is bridging the gap between cutting-edge research and real-world deployment. A key outcome was the reinforcement of a holistic approach to safety and security, integrating functional safety, cybersecurity, and overall trustworthiness as essential pillars for the scalable roll-out of autonomous systems across domains.

The workshop also emphasized the importance of cross-industry collaboration in building a robust European ecosystem capable of supporting autonomous mobility at scale, while providing actionable perspectives relevant to OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers, and regulatory stakeholders. This year’s edition once again brought together leading European innovation projects—ShiftToSDV, ShapeFuture, and EdgeAITrust — highlighting complementary efforts across the value chain. In addition, the participation of European Commission and CCAM Association representatives further strengthened the strategic alignment between research, industrial priorities, and policy: Stefan Bogensberger (DG CNECT) presented the Industrial Action Plan for the European automotive sector, while Dr. Stephane Dreher (Head of CCAM) shared the Status and Outlook of CCAM R&I. Collectively, these contributions underlined Europe’s momentum in driving the development of safe, secure, and trustworthy autonomous systems, from innovation and validation to tangible deployment.