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.
A Waymo self-driving vehicle in San Francisco.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.
But the path to implementation in the region turns out to be more complex than initially imagined, with challenges that go far beyond the technical aspects. For example, the collective mayors' enthusiasm clashes with an inadequate regulatory framework. Italy's new highway code, approved in December 2024, with focuses on new rules for electric scooters, zero tolerance for those driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs, and phone use while driving, has missed an opportunity to bring Italy in line with modern times and positions the country as one of "the last of the old century instead of the first of the new," according to Maran.
Insurance companies still do not cover self-driving cars for public service in Italy, while European approval procedures severely limit the number of vehicles a manufacturer can put on the market. Bureaucracy slows any experimentation: Even to test a simple delivery robot seems to require "going to Mars," said Milan's councillor for mobility Arianna Censi. European Strategy
The discussion at the Milan conference brought out different visions of the future of autonomous driving in Europe. Giorgio Gori, another European Parliament member for the Italian Democratic Party, stated that Europe risks repeating the same mistakes made with cloud computing and artificial intelligence, areas where the continent has lagged behind due to regulatory fragmentation and a lack of large corporate players. "We're not good at manufacturing, but from a utilization and grounding perspective we would be great," Gori said, suggesting that perhaps Europe should focus on applying technologies developed elsewhere rather than trying to reign in global competition.
Benedetta Scuderi, a European Parliament member for the environmentally focused Italian Europa Verde party, rejects the idea of surrendering to the technological supremacy of the United States and China, and insisted on the need to find spaces where Europe can excel, identifying strategic niches in line with the continent's sustainability goals.
Baidu's driverless car service in Jiaxing, China. CFOTO/Getty Images
"We need to think in both research and production where autonomous driving can create added value for Europe and Italy," he said, pointing out that non-European players are not necessarily looking in the direction of more efficient and less impactful mobility. The European strategy, according to Scuderi, must focus on development models that favor vehicle sharing over private ownership, countering the US trend toward individual car ownership. In the Driver's Seat
The Italian mayors' call represents a bet on the future of European mobility that must come to terms with complex geopolitical realities. And the time challenge is crucial: As each month of delay widens the gap with competitors investing billions, Europe must decide whether to focus on technological self-sufficiency or on the smart integration of solutions developed elsewhere. Waymo operates more than 1,500 vehicles in four US cities, while Volkswagen Group's Moia operating in Hamburg and Munich in Germany (as well as in Austin, Texas) has only 100 autonomous vehicles for testing purposes.
Success will depend on turning the policy debate into concrete actions that involve public and private investment, simplify regulations, and convince citizens that autonomous driving is an opportunity and not a threat. The 60 Italian mayors who have signed on to this autonomous driving initiative show that this technology has some political backing. However, it should be noted that there are just under 8,000 Italian municipalities.
Maran feels that what is needed is the kind of quantum leap only a coordinated European strategy can guarantee. 'This is not about technology that will arrive tomorrow,' he said, "but about a revolution already underway that Europe cannot afford to suffer passively."
This story originally appeared on WIRED Italia and has been translated from Italian.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
21 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Waabi introduces mixed reality testing system for autonomous truck safety
Waabi, an autonomous trucking technology leader, has introduced a new mixed reality testing (MRT) system that transforms the way autonomous vehicles are tested. The technology works by blending physical test environments with sophisticated virtual scenarios. In an interview with FreightWaves, Raquel Urtasun, founder and CEO of Waabi, recently talked about how this technology creates virtual scenarios for autonomous trucks operating on physical test tracks. 'In the industry, we often talk about driving in the physical world as one type of testing, and we also discuss simulation, where we run scenarios in the cloud at scale,' said Urtasun. 'But one aspect that's discussed less is how safety testing is really done today, and that's where mixed reality comes in.' Traditional safety testing for vehicles has remained largely unchanged for a century. Testing teams bring vehicles to closed tracks and conduct a limited number of scripted scenarios that require complex coordination similar to movie stunts. A downside to this approach is that it yields minimal test diversity, offers poor repeatability and avoids truly dangerous scenarios to prevent damage to test vehicles. It's also expensive. Waabi's MRT system overcomes these limitations by intercepting sensor data from the physical world and blending it with simulation. This creates an environment where autonomous trucks can safely encounter virtually unlimited dangerous situations without physical risk. 'Imagine putting goggles on a self-driving vehicle so it sees things that aren't there but reacts to them,' Urtasun explained. 'Suddenly, you can expose the system to unavoidable accidents and scenarios impossible to stage safely in the real world.' In a blog post, Waabi adds that the technology enables instantaneous creation of complex scenarios including traffic jams, dangerous driving behaviors and unpredictable pedestrian movements. The secret sauce is the use of generative AI and neural simulations rather than traditional physics-based simulation to achieve the required level of realism. This allows Waabi to create thousands of tests as vehicles drive continuously on a test track, generating precise performance metrics automatically. This technology has significantly accelerated Waabi's development process as the company reached feature-complete status earlier this year. Waabi's autonomous system now has all capabilities needed to operate without a human driver. Only Waabi and Aurora have reached this milestone in long-haul trucking. These developments come as Waabi announced back in February a strategic partnership with Volvo Autonomous Solutions to jointly develop and deploy autonomous trucks. To date, Toronto-based Waabi has raised a total of $280 million, with its most recent round, a $200 million Series B back in 2024, including participation from strategic investors Nvidia, Volvo Group Venture Capital, Porsche Automobil Holding SE, Scania Invest and Ingka Investments, among others. The post Waabi introduces mixed reality testing system for autonomous truck safety appeared first on FreightWaves.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Capri Shows Signs of Stabilization, CEO John Idol Plans to Keep Jimmy Choo
Updated at 5:25 p.m. ET Aug. 6 The declines are slowing at Capri Holdings — but there's still plenty of work to do before the Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo parent gets its stride back. More from WWD Rihanna's Maternity Shoe Style Gets a Wild Update With Python Heels by Jimmy Choo Gucci, Bottega Veneta, Versace, Jil Sander Debuts Headline Packed Milan Fashion Week Spring 2026 Schedule Jenna Ortega Makes Metallic Jimmy Choo Sandals Her Red Carpet Staple at 'Wednesday' Premiere At least the company is on a better trajectory and chief executive officer John Idol was able to say that 'trends improved sequentially' in the first quarter. Investors liked what they saw and sent shares of the company up 14.5 percent to $20.84 on Wednesday, leaving the company with a market capitalization of $2.5 billion. Capri is still a long way off from the $57 per share Tapestry Inc. once agreed to pay for the company, but at least the firm is out of the doldrums it was in before antitrust regulators blocked the deal. Now the company has a $1.4 billion agreement to sell Versace to Prada, which will let Capri take a big bite out of its $1.7 billion debt load and help fuel a branded turnaround. 'While still early, we are beginning to see signs that our strategies are working,' Idol told analysts on a conference call. 'Although the global macroeconomic environment remains dynamic, we are on track to stabilize our business this year while establishing a strong foundation for a return to growth in fiscal '27.' And Idol maintained that the company — which took its name from the island of Capri, its three rock formation symbolically tied to the group's three founder-led brands — would carry on with the two brands. 'Jimmy Choo is not for sale,' Idol said. 'We do not have an intent on selling Jimmy Choo.' But the firm does have plans to ramp Michael Kors sales up to $4 billion in annual revenues, from $3 billion last year, and Jimmy Choo up to $800 million from $605 million 'over time.' First the company has to get back to growth. Capri's first-quarter net income rose to $56 million from $5 million a year earlier, with adjusted profits up to $60 million from $18 million. Adjusted earnings per share tallied 50 cents — much better than the 12 cents analysts had penciled in, according to Yahoo Finance. Revenues for the three months ended June 28 slipped 6 percent to $797 million. That included results from Michael Kors, where sales were down 5.9 percent, and Jimmy Choo, which was off 6.4 percent. The Versace business was not included as it is being categorized as a discontinued operation. Although the company hyped its sequential improvement — and Idol got plenty of kudos for it from analysts on the conference call — it was a relatively low bar as fourth-quarter adjusted losses totaled $581 million with a 15.4 percent decline in sales. But there was some progress there to celebrate. 'In our retail channel, we are starting to see encouraging signs of momentum,' Idol said, pointing to both better traffic trends in the full-price stores, more full-price sell throughs on new styles and a positive turn in the average unit retail prices. 'We view these as early but meaningful indicators that our strategies are gaining traction,' Idol said. Michael Kors has exited 30 percent of its U.S. department stores over the past year and is on track to close 75 underproductive stores of its own this year. Idol said the Michael Kors full price channel would be the first part of the brand to turn around. 'We're getting close to that right now,' he said. 'That's a very good indicator, as you know. If you've got the full price channel working, that's an area where you can really kind of solidify the rest of the company. 'We moved very quickly last October, November around the full price,' the CEO said. 'It was making sure that we got different product to the floor more quickly. We took a very focused approach to our strategic pricing architecture and that is absolutely paying off.' The brand is also going to start selling some of its full-price looks in its outlet channel with a program called Icons, which mirrors what other brands have done. Capri also plans to spend $350 million on store renovations over the next three years and to start to see what Idol said would be 'very nice returns on the $100-plus million that we spent over the last couple of years on our data analytics and replatforming our e-commerce areas.' While sources have said that Capri tried to sell Jimmy Choo this year and that there have been interested parties, including the brand's co-founder Tamara Mellon, Idol was clear he planned to hold onto the brand. 'We're excited about the growth opportunity that Jimmy Choo represents for the company,' he said. 'When we bought Jimmy Choo many years ago, one of the reasons we bought it is because it has an incredible name and history and heritage with the fashion luxury consumer. It's highly recognized. And it is in the shoe business, and we thought we would actually learn a lot from them, which we have. 'Over the years, I'm not sure this has been clear, but we've actually bought two manufacturing facilities,' Idol said. 'So we produce over 50 percent of our own product in-house. We are truly vertical with Jimmy Choo's two beautiful factories that we have in Italy… Store fleet is in excellent shape. We spent a lot of money over the years renovating the stores… And so the investments we've made, now we can leverage.' Best of WWD Harvey Nichols Sees Sales Dip, Losses Widen in Year Marred by Closures Nike Logs $1.3 Billion Profit, But Supply Chain Issues Persist Zegna Shares Start Trading on New York Stock Exchange Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Record-breaking bridges: How Italy and China are pushing engineering limits
The future of transportation took shape on two continents this week as Italy and China announced bridges that would redefine what's possible in modern engineering. Italy greenlit a $15.5 billion project to build what would become the world's longest suspension bridge, infrastructure company WeBuild said on Wednesday. Over the weekend, the Chinese state-run People's Daily reported the near-completion of what will be the world's tallest bridge. The Italian project, connecting Sicily to mainland Italy across the Strait of Messina, would stretch nearly 2.3 miles, with its suspended span reaching nearly 2.1 miles. This would surpass the current record holder, Turkey's Canakkale Bridge, by more than half a mile. "Today, Italy has shown once again how it can come together around a mega project that will be transformative for the whole country," Pietro Salini, chief executive of WeBuild, said in a press release. Meanwhile, in China's southwestern Guizhou Province, the Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge reached a milestone with the installation of its final steel girder. According to Chinese state television, the bridge will stand at 2,051 feet from deck to river -- roughly twice the height of the Eiffel Tower. Italy's bridge, designed to carry 6,000 cars per hour and 200 trains daily, focuses on connecting a major island to the mainland. China's Huajiang bridge, while completing a crucial expressway link, incorporates ambitious tourist attractions, including what will be the world's highest bungee jump. Both projects face unique challenges, according to the Associated Press. Italy's bridge must contend with seismic risks in the Messina fault region, while China's bridge tackles the extreme engineering demands of spanning one of the world's deepest canyons, the newsgathering service noted. The competition reflects a broader trend in global infrastructure development. While Italy aims to strengthen its connection to Sicily and bolster NATO's capabilities, China has been systematically building the world's highest bridges. China's Guizhou Province alone has more high bridges than all other countries combined, according to The Italian Transport Ministry announced construction on the Messina bridge is expected to begin next year. According to People's Daily China, the Huajiang bridge is now over 98% complete, and is set to open by the end of September in southwest China's Guizhou Province.
