Brussels Shifts Gears on Autonomous Vehicle Rules

The EU's Automotive Action Plan launches a sweeping new regulatory framework for autonomous vehicle testing, approval, and deployment

8 Mar 2025

Europe has never lacked ambition when it comes to regulating things that do not yet exist at scale. Autonomous vehicles are the latest test of that instinct. The European Commission's Automotive Action Plan, published in March 2025, sets out a staged programme of legal changes intended to turn the continent's fragmented AV governance into something resembling a single system.

The plan is, by design, incremental. Rather than waiting for one comprehensive framework, regulators are advancing rules by use case. Unlimited series approvals for automated parking systems arrived in 2025. Hub-to-hub freight transport is next, slated for 2026. Cross-border testbeds, regulatory sandboxes, and dedicated AV corridors are all scheduled for the same year, alongside a harmonised permitting process for testing on public roads. That last item matters more than it might appear: until now, developers have had to seek separate national approvals in each member state, a slow and expensive process that has given non-European rivals a quiet advantage.

Germany has not waited for Brussels to move. Its Road Traffic Remote Control Ordinance, which entered into force in December 2025, created the first nationwide legal basis in Europe for teleoperated driving on public roads. Under the rules, remote operators may control vehicles from a central facility at speeds up to 80 kilometres per hour within approved zones, subject to a five-year trial period. Vay, a Berlin-based remote driving company, described the regulation as establishing a clear and standardised approval pathway for commercial driverless carsharing.

The approach has a certain logic. Use-case-specific rules allow regulators to manage risk incrementally, building evidence before extending permissions. But the strategy also carries risks of its own. Parallel national reforms, however well-intentioned, can calcify before harmonisation arrives. Germany's teleoperation framework may prove a model for Europe, or it may become one more layer that eventually needs reconciling. The Commission's target of a fully harmonised single market for autonomous vehicles by 2026 and beyond is ambitious. Whether the sum of its parts adds up to that remains, for now, an open question.