Ajax, Ontario — The winners of the 2020 Innovation Awards have been announced after finalists presented their technologies and systems yesterday evening to a panel of seven judges from the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC) at the Ajax Convention Centre in Ajax, Ont.
The awards covered a range of categories with the three stand-outs being recent innovations to safety, technology and environment-friendly designs.
Subaru took home the award for Best Safety Innovation with its DriverFocus system, which allows for facial scanning from the Subaru’s dashboard that monitors the driver for signs of distracted driving or fatigue. The system will give audio warnings if attention is taken off the road for more than three seconds and after repeated warnings, the vehicle will begin to slow itself down.
Mercedes-Benz was awarded the Best Technology Innovation for its Mercedes-Benz User Experience (MBUX). MBUX features a high-resolution Widescreen Cockpit just behind the steering wheel which comes with touchscreen operation, navigation display with augmented reality technology and voice control functionalities when a user says “Hey Mercedes.”
The Best Green Innovation award was given to Infiniti for its VC-Turbo Engine. Expanded to “Variable Compression Turbo Engine,” it launches as the world’s first production-ready variable compression ratio engine. Developed over the past 20 years, its green-friendly capabilities come in the form of its 7.8L/100 km highway fuel economy—rated best-in-class for any vehicles equipped with it.
Aside from the categories, AJAC also voted for the Canadian Car of the Year which was awarded to the Kia Stinger, making it the manufacturer’s first win in the award show’s almost 35-year history.
