Vienna, Austria – Executives and international experts in autonomous systems will gather in Vienna to address one central challenge: how does autonomy earn the trust it needs to scale? Leaders from OEMs, automotive suppliers, semiconductor firms, robotics companies, regulators, and investors will meet at The Autonomous Main Event 2026. The event takes place on September 23–24, 2026, at the Hofburg in Vienna and online. The programme combines technical workshops, C-level keynotes, panel discussions, and fireside chats.
Now in its seventh year, the annual event is a leading meeting point for autonomous mobility and robotics. It attracts leading companies and a growing community from automotive, industrial automation, and robotics.
From pilots to deployment: the 2026 focus
This year’s theme is ‘Building Trust for Autonomy to Scale’. Autonomous technologies are moving beyond isolated pilots toward scaled, real-world deployment. The industry’s message for 2026 is clear: innovation alone is not enough. Autonomy must earn trust through safety, security, robustness, and shared responsibility. The event is therefore widening its focus beyond the safety of autonomous systems, addressing the complete technical, systemic, and societal foundations that autonomy needs to scale. While the 2025 event examined safe, secure software-defined autonomy, the 2026 event will ask what deployment at scale now requires. Sessions will explore shared approaches across passenger vehicles, off-highway machines, industrial robots and humanoids.
| “Under the motto Building Trust for Autonomy to Scale, this year’s Autonomous Main Event focuses on how we build shared responsibility and trusted foundations before global deployment across mobility and robotics,” said Ricky Hudi, Chairman of The Autonomous. “Autonomy won’t scale because technology is ready. It will scale when trust is ready. Our mission is to bring the industry’s brightest minds together to build that trust, across companies, across industries, and across society.” |
Keynotes span autonomous driving, robotics, and physical AI
Johann Jungwirth, Executive Vice President, Autonomous Vehicles at Mobileye, will deliver a keynote speech about their AV vision. Julia Badger, Moon Base’s Surface Mobility Deputy Lead at NASA, will speak about autonomy in extreme environments. Péter Fankhauser, Co-founder and CEO of ANYbotics, will present ‘How Autonomous Robots Earn Their Place’. Infineon’s Philipp von Schierstaedt will argue that ‘The Future of Physical AI is Built on Chips’. Google’s Dorothee Andermann will ask: ‘Your 100 AI Pilots Are Not a Strategy: Are You Ready for Multi-Agent Orchestration?’ André Loesekrug-Pietri of JEDI will present ‘Verify, Don’t Trust: How Europe Wins the Autonomy Race It Thinks It Has Lost’.
Further confirmed speakers include Lars Reger (NXP), Peter Schaefer (Infineon), Enrico Salvatori (Qualcomm) and Ingo Stürmer (Volvo Autonomous Solutions). Sessions on policy perspectives will be delivered by Austrian State Secretary Alexander Pröll, MEP Sophia Kircher and the European Commission’s Franco Accordino.
The full speaker line-up is available at The Autonomous Main Event website.
Edge AI, off-highway autonomy and humanoids: key sessions and topics
Day 1 (September 23) is dedicated to expert workshops in small, interactive groups. Day 2 (September 24) brings keynotes, panels and fireside chats to the main stage. Key themes for 2026 include:
- Scaling autonomy through trust and shared responsibility
- Secure, scalable Edge AI frameworks for autonomy
- From cars to robots: shared autonomy foundations
- Scaling autonomous machines in off-highway environments
- Humanoids and the future of physical AI
- Regulating trust: from testbeds to large-scale deployment
Three panels anchor the main stage. ‘Building Secure and Scalable Edge AI Frameworks for Autonomous Systems’, hosted by TrustMotion, examines how continuous development and deployment can remain safe and secure across the multiple AI models and components running at the edge within an autonomous system. ‘Will Mobile Machines Be First?’, hosted by TTControl, asks whether off-highway industries, with their more controlled operating environments and clearer business cases, will scale autonomy before passenger cars. ‘From Cars to Robots: Shared Foundations for Safe and Trusted Autonomy’, hosted by Infineon and NXP, explores what vehicles and humanoid robots share in compute, communication, safety and security architecture – and whether automotive standards such as ISO 26262 can transfer to robotics.
A regulatory fireside chat hosted by PSWP will bring together the European Commission, the World Economic Forum and Starship Technologies to discuss the path from testbeds to large-scale deployment. Attendees can network with industry peers before, during and after the event.
Tickets for on-site or virtual attendance are available at www.the-autonomous.com/main-event/.
