60 Italian Mayors Want to Be the Unlikely Solution to Self-Driving Cars in Europe

The future of self-driving cars in Italy it seems needs not only technology but also (possibly above all) political backing. The good news, then, is that more than 60 mayors in Italy have decided to take the field for the cars of the future.

On July 14, in the hall of the MEET Digital Culture Center in Milan, Pierfrancesco Maran, a member of the European Parliament for the Italian Democratic Party, launched the Autonomous Driving: Italy in the Front Row initiative, which has backing from administrators from all over the country.

Among the signatories to the scheme are Milan mayor Beppe Sala and Turin mayor Stefano Lo Russo, as well as dozens of other mayors of medium-size and small cities. The goal, apparently, is to make Italy the European leader in autonomous vehicles, turning municipal territories into open-air laboratories for testing the automotive technologies of the near future.

Catching Up With the USA and China

The initiative stems from the realization that Europe lags dramatically behind the United States and China. While Waymo fulfills more than 250,000 paid rides a week in the four US cities where it operates, and China has established 20 pilot cities with more than 74 million miles of accumulated testing, Europe is limited to 400 highly fragmented micro-projects—of which less than half are nationwide.

The gap is not only geographical. In the United States and China, private individuals and companies invest billions, while in Europe, public funds are dispersed over initiatives that are too small. Europe’s regulatory fragmentation, with 27 different national frameworks (including differing traffic laws, for example), also makes it impossible to exploit any advantage of the region being a single continental market.

Italian administrators see autonomous driving as a practical solution to everyday urban problems, such as last-mile urban logistics and reducing traffic and pollution in city centers. Extending the right to mobility for the elderly, disabled, and children is also a priority shared by many administrators in the country, as is the use of autonomous vehicles to better connect suburban areas poorly served by public transportation.