European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has urged a continent-wide push to develop self-driving cars, framing artificial intelligence (AI) as both a competitiveness issue and a road-safety opportunity for the European Union’s car industry.
Speaking at Italian Tech Week in Turin on 3 October, von der Leyen called for an “AI-first” approach across strategic sectors, with mobility as a priority. She proposed a network of European cities to pilot autonomous vehicles and said 60 Italian mayors had already expressed interest. “Self-driving cars are already a reality in the United States and China. The same should be true here in Europe,” she said, adding that “AI-first” must mean “safety-first”.
Her intervention comes as Brussels looks to bolster industrial competitiveness amid pressure from Chinese and US technology advances. Von der Leyen said the Commission would support vehicles “made in Europe, and made for European streets”, and argued that AI-enabled transport could reduce congestion, improve connections to remote areas and preserve employment in a sector undergoing rapid decarbonisation and digitisation. The Turin event also featured Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and senior figures from Ferrari and Stellantis, underlining the intersection between global tech and Europe’s automotive heritage.
The policy backdrop is shifting. The EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act entered into force on 1 August 2024, with a staged application: prohibitions and AI-literacy duties from 2 February 2025; governance rules and obligations for general-purpose AI models from 2 August 2025; and full application in August 2026, with an extended transition for high-risk AI embedded in regulated products until August 2027. Member States were required to designate national competent authorities by 2 August 2025. These milestones set the regulatory frame for autonomous-driving software and data governance that will underpin city-level pilots.
Standards work is also advancing at UN level. Europe’s vehicle rules draw on United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) regulations, including R157 on Level-3 automated lane-keeping (ALKS) and recent texts on emergency lane-keeping and data storage for automated driving. These measures define performance, cybersecurity and software-update requirements that manufacturers must meet in order to type-approve vehicles for European roads.
Von der Leyen’s call for city pilots reflects a practical route to deployment. Urban testbeds allow limited, geo-fenced operations under defined weather, speed and traffic conditions, while generating evidence for safety cases and liability frameworks. The Commission has previously used networks of cities to scale digital initiatives; applying the model to autonomous mobility would help align municipal transport planning, telecoms infrastructure and cross-border interoperability. Reuters reported that the Commission chief’s objective is to close the gap with the US and China by accelerating trials on European streets.
Industry will seek clarity on how EU law interacts with vehicle type approval and road-traffic codes. Under the AI Act, providers of high-risk AI systems—such as automated-driving stacks integrated into vehicles—face obligations on risk management, data quality, human oversight and incident reporting. In parallel, UNECE technical rules govern the automated-driving function itself. The combined regime means manufacturers must satisfy both product-safety and AI-governance requirements before widescale rollout, a dual track that could be eased by Commission guidance now expected to arrive in stages through 2025.
The economic stakes are considerable. Europe’s automotive industry employs millions directly and indirectly. While European brands lead in safety and manufacturing, the region has trailed rivals in large-scale autonomous deployments and advanced driver-assistance data collection. Von der Leyen’s pledge to back vehicles designed for “European streets” signals an emphasis on dense, historic urban environments, mixed traffic and modal integration—areas where fit-for-purpose autonomy could differentiate European products.
For cities, pilots could target use-cases with measurable public benefits: automated shuttles linking rail hubs to suburbs; freight and logistics in night-time windows; and on-demand services for low-density areas. Safety will be central. The Commission and national authorities are expected to stress transparent reporting of disengagements and incidents, robust cyber-security, and alignment with data-protection rules. UNECE’s recent work on data storage aims to support post-incident analysis, a prerequisite for public trust and insurance.
Turin was a symbolic venue. Italy combines a high-end performance car segment with a broader manufacturing base and is positioning itself in electronics and software. Bringing together political leadership and industry figures such as Ferrari’s and Stellantis’s John Elkann alongside global tech speakers underscored the cross-sector nature of the shift to software-defined vehicles. Von der Leyen also linked the mobility push with wider measures to strengthen Europe’s tech ecosystem, including plans for a harmonised “28th regime” for start-ups to scale across the bloc.
The next steps will test the EU’s ability to move from statements to street-level deployment. If a network of pilot cities is established, it will need common protocols for safety validation, spectrum and connectivity, mapping, and cross-border recognition of approvals. With the AI Act’s obligations phasing in and UNECE rules maturing, the regulatory architecture is taking shape. Von der Leyen’s message in Turin was that Europe should now use it—quickly—to put autonomous vehicles on European roads.
