The EU's "Now or Never" Moment on Autonomous Vehicles, Pierfrancesco Maran, Member of EU Parliament

Almost nobody in Brussels is against autonomous driving. That is not the problem. The problem is that most policymakers treat it as a distant future, not a present priority. So the agenda slips while the US and China move.

Pierfrancesco Maran is trying to change that. He is the newly elected chair of the European Parliament's ENVI Committee, and before Brussels he spent thirteen years running mobility, urban planning and housing as a Milan city alderman. In December he hosted a Brussels conference on autonomous vehicles with more than 120 stakeholders from over 20 countries. He has called 2026 Europe's now-or-never moment on this technology.

In this episode, Daniel sits down with Maran to map where Europe actually stands, what it can still win, and what has to change in the next twelve months.

What we cover:

• Why the real barrier in Brussels is not opposition, it is the belief that AVs are a future problem, not a present one
• Why Maran argues Europe is not over-regulating AVs, it is renouncing them by failing to set rules at all
• The case for concentrating capital in three or four flagship projects instead of spreading it across 70
• Why Waymo started in London and skipped Paris, Berlin and Milan, and what that signals about the EU
• Chinese technology already inside European deployments, from Switzerland to Zagreb, and whether the EU should restrict it
• The two structural limits of Regulation 2022/1426: the 1,500-vehicle cap per type per year and member-state control over operating areas
• The case for a European mobility agency to harmonize rules and pool AV data at EU level
• Why Europe's talent keeps leaving for the US, and why Maran calls it a capital problem first
• What Europe is still strong at
• His realistic picture of autonomous mobility in Europe by 2030

Timestamps:
00:00 - Introducing Pierfrancesco Maran on Europe’s AV ambition

02:20 - From Milan city leader to EU policy advocate for autonomous vehicles

04:26 - European competitiveness and why Europe risks falling behind

06:46 - Challenges in Brussels: resistance, regulatory hurdles, and geopolitical risks

08:14 - The strategic value of autonomy beyond operational benefits

11:38 - Europe’s innovation lag compared to US and China, and why regulation isn’t the barrier

13:29 - EU’s industrial plan and investment priorities for AVs

16:13 - Industry insights: Meeting with Waymo and geopolitical considerations

18:20 - The importance of local experimentation, sandboxes, and citizen involvement

20:45 - The critical need for harmonized standards and cross-border test beds

24:55 - Building on European strengths: automotive heritage, safety, and talent

28:26 - The rise of startups and software-driven vehicle models in Europe

31:14 - The regulatory limits on driverless vehicle deployment and future EU policy

34:10 - The vision for a harmonized, safe, and scalable autonomous mobility ecosystem by 2030