Germany’s onward flight on autonomous driving. The country, the first European car market and also the nation in which the most vehicles are manufactured in the Old Continent, aims at a pioneering role in the race towards driverless cars. Already in 2017, Germany was the first to set up a bill to regulate the circulation of self-driving cars by also setting up a specific ethical-functional-religious commission to set the fundamental parameters.
Four years later, on 21 May, the Bundestag approved the device that authorizes autonomous driving on public roads. “Germany is absolutely the first nation to take self-driving vehicles out of research laboratories to transfer them on the road”, commented the Federal Minister for Transport, the Bavarian Andreas Scheuer, who bears responsibility for half a billion expenses. for the motorway toll for foreigners only, rejected by the European court in Strasbourg.
There are still many limitations, but Germany is the first nation to have a legislative instrument, which is still lacking not only the approval of the other branch of parliament, the Bundesrat, the Chamber of Regions, but above all of the implementing regulation.
To begin with, driverless vehicles will only be able to circulate from next year and exclusively along some arteries, not yet defined for the moment. The expected level of automation reaches level 4, out of 5. Among the aspects to be clarified are those on the attribution of responsibilities, which if they were to remain with the individual driver would greatly limit the possible enjoyment of mobility without drivers. Also because in Germany it is still possible to drive without speed restrictions along half of the motorway network, an exception at a global level. That could also disappear with the virtually certain entry of the Greens into the next federal government after the September elections. The current majority is counting on the approval of the law also by the Bundesrat by the end of the legislature: a tailor-made “gift” for the builders of the country, a very powerful lobby. “With the adoption of the law on autonomous driving, Germany has the possibility of becoming the first and so far the only nation to have established a regulatory framework for a technology of the future”, exulted Hildegard Müller, former undersecretary of the Chancellery with Angela Merkel and now president of the VDA, the German association representing the automotive industry. Hildegard Müller diplomatically urged the representatives of the regions not to penalize the sector: without the rapid approval of the provision, Germany would risk losing at least a year and a half of competitive advantage. The automotive industry is important for exports and in terms of employment. In some regions – from Bavaria to Baden-Württenberg, from North Rhine Westphalia to Lower Saxony to Hesse and Brandenburg (where Tesla is building Europe’s first gigafactory) – car manufacturers are extremely influential. Then there are constructors who directly finance some parties.