As for the AI also on this technology, Europe pursues the United States. Pierfrancesco Maran, MEP and former councilor in Milan, aims to bring the self -driving car to the top of the commission agenda. «At the moment there is only committed Volkswagen. However, our universities have great excellence: you have to move before the researchers go abroad “
«When I arrived at the European Parliament, the autonomous guide was out of political priorities. Any reasoning on the automotive was limited to the commitment to the struggle to reduce emissions “. Pierfrancesco Maran, from 2024 MEP and previously councilor in Milan in the first pisapia junits and then room, dealt with urban mobility for a long time.
For a few months on social media it highlights the urgency that Europe has recovered the ground on one of the different frontier technologies. Robotaxi are daily presence in different cities of California and Texas. Net of some path accidents – such as the collapse of Cruise – companies such as Waymo (Google), Tesla and Zoox (Amazon) have put their autonomous driving vehicles on the road. Europe and Italy, according to Maran, still have a margin to act, but the gap is enlarged. «I hope that with the new budget and the guidelines of the Commission we focus on 3/4 European projects. All this to direct private capital ».
Maran, what is the European Parliament doing today to facilitate this technology?
The reason why I am dealing with so much energy derives from the fact that the topic was out of political priorities when I arrived. There is great attention to the automotive, but almost exclusively on the issue of emissions. In this mobility revolution, the most relevant part lies in the software and can help reduce the car park. Goal that, evidently, would entail a reduction in emissions.
However, European automotive has been in crisis for some time. Electrification and the autonomous guide front risk impacting employment?
It depends on the type of employment we are talking about. This turning point, I am referring to autonomous driving in particular, will cause profound transformations. On the one hand, some professions will change. But the real critical question is that all these technologies are not developed in Europe. For this one of the knots concerns investments and capital.
United States and China are ahead of Europe. Stellantis suspended the programs on autonomous driving. Does Volkswagen stay with Moia?
If I had to find a turning point and a real reason for trusting, it is exactly what VW. Now there is a European subject that begins to have comparable dimensions to Asian and American medium subjects. The absence of a player of this type would be a great limit.
And what do you think of any brakes for innovation deriving from European rules and bureaucracy?
In my opinion, it is not the rules that allow or not to experience autonomous driving cars. The problem is the poor availability of investment capital in research. Public resources are not huge and are distributed in a myriad of small small projects. In America there are five subjects who have invested at least 1 billion.
But we remain on the European rules …
There is a fund of truth. In Europe there is great propensity to regulate phenomena and regulate risks. But it is not in my opinion wrong. Autonomous driving cars cause much less accidents for kilometers traveled than cars driven by people. Whenever a public opinion occurs, however, it is alarmed. This means that you have to have great caution in protecting this technology from a bad perception. In summary, a gradual approach is needed.
However, abysmal moment with the United States remain at the time.
Private capitals are a central element. The presence of groups such as Amazon, Google, Uber, Tesla who invest knowing that the return will not come perhaps before ten years is crucial. It is true that there is great freedom of experimentation between California and Texas, but today tests in Germany and Czech Republic are admitted today. I return to say, the rules are not the problem. I detect the absence of important investment capital.
Let’s place that Europe can count on autonomous driving vehicles tomorrow. Where would it aim to circulate them?
We must focus on weak question. In Milan and Rome, for example, there is a public transport that degrades a lot at night as a service quality. You could focus on small buses. And if we go out of urban areas, in internal areas, a similar public service would mean restoring people to move the possibility.
Italy, realistically, what cards can play?
We have some assets: I refer to three universities – Milan, Turin and Moden and Reggio Emilia – who have skills to put together quality teams, before researchers decide to go to the United States. There are national and European public resources for a great project. We need teamwork: private investors must be identified that believe in a single Italian project. A commitment would be needed by the government. The problem is that the new highway code could have been the first to talk about new forms of mobility. And instead it was the last code of the twentieth century.
From here to the end of the legislature for what will it work on this area?
I don’t know if a specific Act will be needed on autonomous driving as for artificial intelligence. In general it would do well to have an authority of mobility that has the power to harmonize the codes of the road of the 27 member countries. Sometimes we don’t have enough Europe. On the other hand, I hope that with the new budget and with the addresses that the Commission is undertaking to give on autonomous guide in 2026 we focus on 3/4 major European projects.
