EC Action Plan for automotive industry aims to get autonomous vehicles on Europe’s roads faster

To address the rapid technological changes faced by the European automotive sector, EC President von der Leyen launched with the sector in January a Strategic Dialogue on the Future of the European Automotive Industry aimed to tackle their most pressing challenges.

In a statement released this week, President von der Leyen has put forward the Action Plan, which builds on the Strategic Dialogue. Autonomous driving technology was featured prominantly.

To help the industry lead in the transition towards AI-powered, connected and automated vehicles, the Action Plan proposes a big push in shared software and digital hardware for autonomous driving, and the set up of a dedicated European Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Alliance bringing together Europe’s automotive stakeholders to help bring (and scale up) this technology to life. Large-scale testbeds and regulatory ‘sandboxes’ will allow innovators to test and refine their technologies for autonomous vehicles. On their side, the Commission will refine the testing and deployment regulations for autonomous vehicles. These actions will be supported by joint public-private investments of around €1 billion backed by the Horizon Europe Programme over the 2025-2027 period.

Additionally, the Commission will work with social partners and Member States to increase funding to support automotive sector workers’ upskilling and reskilling¹.

Source: The original press release was published here

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1. Read more on related existing initiatives in the field of cooperative, connected and automated mobility (CCAM) here and here