Autonomous vehicles was the most eye-catching tech innovation of 2016: Yahoo

It’s December, the time of the year when Yahoo brings you a review of all the year’s top trends, happenings and events which caught the imagination of Internet users in the country. 2016 has been an eventful year that witnessed many big events and happenings like Olympics, demonetization, Cyrus Mistry ousted from Tatas, national calamity like Uri attack among others.

Yahoo’s 2016 Year in Review (YIR) is based on users’ daily search habits and an editorial selection of what they read, recommended and shared most on Yahoo.

Prime minister’s demonetisation initiative, Cyrus Mistry’s dramatic exit from Tata Group and Reliance Jio’s 4G network launch were the most significant Financial Events that shook India. In fact, RJio launch made Mukesh Ambani one of the top Business Newsmakers of 2016 as well.

Coming to tech industry, Autonomous vehicles was the Most Significant Technology Innovation of 2016, with several companies announcing their foray into driverless cars. If people's searches are a window into the future, areas we may see growth in moving forward include Virtual Personal Assistants, Virtual and Augmented Reality and Fitness Trackers.

Here is the complete list of the Most Significant Technology Innovations compiled by Yahoo:

• Autonomous Vehicles
• More Focus on IoT (Internet of Things)
• Fitness Trackers
• Virtual Personal Assistants
• Virtual and Augmented Reality
• Everything Cloud
• 3D printing to become mainstream
• Faster and cleaner modes of transportation - Hyperloop
• Renewable Energy
• Drone Service

The list of Top Newsmakers, usually ruled by politicians and Bollywood stars, saw the entry of Indian Sportswomen including PV Sindhu, Sakshi Malik, Dipa Karmakar who won medals and laurels and dominated the headlines during Rio Olympics. Also featuring in the list is wrestler Vinesh Phogat, one of India's best bets for a medal, who bowed out of the Olympic games at a crucial juncture due to an injury.

Other top newsmakers include Prime Minister Narendra Modi, TV journalist Arnab Goswami and Indian politicians Arvind Kejriwal, Jayalalithaa and Subramanian Swamy, as well as Rohit Khandelwal the first Indian (and Asian) to win the Mr. World title.

‘The Unnamed Soldier’ became the ‘Personality of the Year’ for being perennially at the forefront of national consciousness.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the Most Searched Politician followed by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The US presidential election was widely followed in India, with Donald Trump ranking as the fourth most searched politician in the country.