2 days ago
Inside The Race To Put Fully Autonomous Vehicles On EU Roads
MOTOR Ai hopes to put fully autonomous vehicles on the streets of Berlin
Which company will be the first to put truly autonomous vehicles on Europe's roads? Despite stiff competition from US pioneers including Tesla and Waymo, the German start-up MOTOR Ai thinks it could win the race. The company hopes to win approval for its self-driving vehicles to begin using public roads in 2026 – starting in Germany but then moving into other countries in the European Union.
Critically, MOTOR Ai, which is today announcing a $20 million fundraising, is taking a very different approach to the big names in self-driving vehicles. For one thing, it is targeting the public transport market, rather than consumers; it is also retrofitting its technology to existing vehicles, rather than developing a new car; and the artificial intelligence technology it relies on is unconventional too.
It's this final point that gives MOTOR Ai an advantage in Europe, argues Roy Uhlmann, who co-founded the Berlin-based company in 2017 and is now its CEO. Rather than relying on an algorithm based on extensive training from huge datasets, the company's software uses 'active inference', making predictions about how the environment encountered by vehicles will behave; that makes it much easier to present to regulators.
'This technology is very explainable – you can show how every single decision is made, unlike with other types of AI, where decisions are made inside a black box,' Uhlmann says. 'That's vital in the EU because the regulation here requires explainability for approval to be granted for a fully autonomous system.'
MOTOR Ai fits its software to one specific type of vehicle – a Mercedes minivan – which will help with scaling and capacity. The idea is to sell its services to local authorities across Germany – and eventually beyond – to help them provide on-demand public transport services in both urban and rural settings. 'Until we improve the public transport network, we won't get drivers out of their own cars,' says Uhlmann of the sustainability arguments for his business model.
MOTOR Ai has already begun trials of the technology in Berlin, but with a safety driver. It is now seeking approval for 'Level 4' autonomous vehicle operation, which would enable it to take drivers out of the vehicles altogether and to begin offering its services to the public; negotiations to provide public transport are already underway with several German local authorities.
Assuming it gets that approval in early 2026 as expected, MOTOR Ai would be the first company to put fully autonomous cars into full operation on public roads in the EU. Other competitors in this race include the likes of Karsan, which operates buses, and ZF Mobility Solutions, both of which are also in testing. Leading German manufacturers such as BMW and Mercedes itself are also pursuing greater autonomy, with competition from the US also a factor. The latter is likely to become fiercer if the EU makes concessions to the Trump Administration on regulation in the sector as part of trade negotiations, as has been predicted.
MOTOR Ai is convinced it can win the race, but the bigger opportunity is to drive change on Europe's roads, says Uhlmann. 'The German Government and the EU are determined to scale autonomous electric vehicles because they see this as key to solving several societal challenges,' he says. Mass adoption of this technology could improve public mobility while supporting climate change mitigation, he points out.
Today's $20 million seed round is led by Segenia Capital and eCAPITAL, with participation from a number of business angels prominent in the mobility sector. 'In a regulated environment like Europe, trust and compliance are non-negotiable,' says Michael Janßen, general partner at Segenia Capital 'MOTOR Ai has built a solution that is not only technologically differentiated, but fundamentally aligned with how Europe thinks about infrastructure and public safety.'
Lucas Merle, principal at eCAPITAL, points to the value of having a German business leading the way, rather than a North American competitor: 'The 'Made in Germany' in-house development reduces inter-dependencies while strengthening Europe's ability to operate in critical innovative technology.'
