In my April 2026 article “Who Will Most Benefit from the Accelerating AV Market?“ I analyzed how the robotaxi ecosystem of evolving. Whereas pioneers such as Waymo initially addressed most layers of the emerging solution (with the major exception of the vehicle), the market is now becoming disaggregated. Various stakeholder groups are emerging to address specific parts of the value chain. 

 

This phenomenon is certainly happening in the fast-maturing U.S. market where robotaxis now operate commercially in 15 cities, performing over 500,000 fully autonomous rides per week. This allows the lagging European market to build on these experiences in order to deploy the new mode. An array of companies is coming together to build the ecosystem, adapting to the more stringent regulatory setup than in the U.S. Whereas Europe has strong players in several parts of the overall solution (e.g., carmakers, fleet managers, transportation operators), the region is mostly absent in the core layer, i.e., the autonomous driving system (ADS), with the exception of UK’s Wayve. 

 

 

What is the Current Status of Autonomous Mobility in Europe?

Many pilots have been deployed in various European countries. This started with Navya’s and Easymile’s automated shuttles in the late 2010s, using vehicles programmed along waypoints rather than fully autonomous. More recently WeRide deployed autonomous shuttles in Leuven, Belgium, Barcelona, Zurich airport and at Paris’ Roland-Garros tennis tournament. However, none of these pilots have scaled, largely for lack of an enabling regulatory framework. 

​

Robotaxis projects have been more ambitious so far. Earlier this month, Uber and Wayve launched London’s first robotaxi service for the general public (with safety operators). Just this month, Croatia’s Verne launched a similar service in Zagreb on the Uber platform using Pony.ai’s ADS. The most recent and bold announcement came from Estonia’s shared mobility platform Bolt and Silicon Valley’s OEM Lucid. The two companies aim to deploy 25,000 robotaxis fitted with an ADS to be jointly developed on Nvidia Hyperion reference HW/SW solution. 

​

Several other robotaxi projects have been announced for the European market over the past 18-24 months. Baidu’s Apollo Go partnered with both Uber and Lyft / FreeNow, starting in London. Pony.ai and Uber plan to bring 2,000 robotaxis to four European cities. Waymo has been testing in London for months and was planning to launch a commercial service this September although it has been delayed, apparently for regulatory reasons. The company also just started testing in Munich and recently also opened offices in France, Spain, and the Netherlands. Volkswagen’s MOIA has been preparing to launch a service in Germany leveraging Mobileye’s tech, although MOIA is reportedly in financial difficulties. Stellantis announced collaborations with Pony.ai, Wayve and Bolt, and Renault with WeRide. And this list is not exhaustive.

​

 

How to Enable Autonomous Mobility Growth in Europe?

New projects must be more ambitious than their predecessors, particularly as the enabling regulations are about to emerge (see below). These projects must be designed from the get-go to reach scale, pilots being only the first steps rather the endgame. This requires that the ecosystem partners that build these projects, along with financing and legal structures must be fit for purpose, namely able to scale. There must also be sufficient appetite from the regional and local governments to foster such projects. 

​

In June 2026, the EU launched the Autonomous Drive Ambition Cities initiative under the broader Apply AI Strategy. ADACities is intended to facilitate the creation of viable autonomous urban mobility services (robotaxi, autonomous carsharing, and public transit shuttles) that can be financed, operated, and scaled. This initiative triggered a call for projects with two conditions among others: sovereignty, as defined with the EU’s Tech Sovereignty package, and target fleets of 100 or more autonomous vehicles by 2030. 

​

This sovereignty condition begs a key question:  should Europe let the gap with the U.S. and China in this domain widen at the expense of otherwise understandable sovereignty given that the region only has one mature ADS player (Wayve)? Or should Europe initially accept non-regional core players to catch up with the U.S. and China, and create a market which would foster the development of local tech? Clearly, the tradeoff between speed and sovereignty must be carefully managed.

​

Europe has a deep-rooted automotive industry, a well-developed transportation infrastructure, strong engineering talents, and a large market. However, the region lacks the ambition of Silicon Valley’s and China’s startup ecosystems, financing capabilities, and favorable regulatory frameworks. Together, these key characteristics enabled the development of the core autonomous driving tech. Despite lacking these enablers, Europe must eventually find a way to become independent in all strategic technological domains, as highlighted by the Draghi report.

​

The absence of a regulatory framework has been a roadblock in the Europe. However, the soon-to-be-voted-on U.N. World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations, a.k.a. UNECE WP.29 will address this deficiency. If / when passed, this international set of regulations will greatly simplify the certification process, via a type approval, while eliminating the discrepancies between countries that make it unnecessarily hard to deploy projects. At that point, deployment will be faster than it was initially in the U.S. and China since the core tech, the ADS, is now mature. By 2030, I expect Europe to be where the U.S. is today, i.e., 5,000 to 10,000 vehicles operating commercially in the region. Europe should then have reduced the gap with the U.S. and China which is about six to eight years.

​

For a much more granular analysis of the global autonomous driving space (including trucking), I invite you to read my new book, Mobility Revolution How AI, EVs, Robotaxis, and New Modes Radically Transform the Ecosystem. Use the code MOB26 for 25% off.

​

[Image credit: Wayve]