Laura Major was named president and CEO of Motional in June 2025. | Credit: Motional
Autonomous vehicle company Motional today named Laura Major president and CEO. Major was appointed by Motional’s Board of Directors following a successful tenure as CTO. The announcement comes as Motional prepares to launch its driverless commercial service in 2026.
Major has served as Motional’s interim CEO since September 2024 when she took over for Karl Iagnemma, who stepped down. Iagnemma is now CEO of Vecna Robotics, a provider of warehouse automation systems. Major has been CTO of Motional since the company’s inception in 2020.
As CTO, she led the engineering team to develop one of the world’s first fully driverless vehicles to be certified by the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, the IONIQ 5 robotaxi, and created a machine learning-first autonomous driving software stack. Prior to Motional, Major developed a range of autonomy and AI solutions at Draper Laboratory and Aria Insights, including astronaut and national security applications. She is also an accomplished author, and co-wrote What to Expect When You’re Expecting Robots: The Future of Human-Robot Collaboration.
“In partnership with Hyundai, we’re bringing embodied AI to transportation and introducing significant societal benefits,” said Major. “Leveraging our deep expertise in building fully driverless systems and our agility in realizing the latest AI breakthroughs, we are strongly positioned to unlock a future where safe autonomous vehicles are a practical part of daily life.”
MassRobotics co-founder Joyce Sidopoulos (left) and Motional president & CEO Laura Major at the 2025 Robotics Summit Women in Robotics Breakfast.
Major was the featured speaker for the Women in Robotics Breakfast at the 2025 Robotics Summit & Expo, which is produced by The Robot Report. She began her career as a cognitive engineer for Draper Laboratory, where she combined her psychology and engineering skills to design decision-making support devices for U.S. astronauts and soldiers. After 12 years with the company, she served as division leader for the Information and Cognition Division.
During this time Major was recognized by the Society of Women Engineers as an emerging leader in 2014. She also spent time at Aria Insights, Inc. (formerly known as CyPhy Works), a U.S.-based drone manufacturer that specialized in developing highly advanced drones. She served as VP of engineering, and then CTO, working on the development of autonomous drones.
Major is a graduate of Georgia Institute of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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