Europe Has an Autonomous Vehicle Problem 🇪🇺 🚘

This Week in the Autonomy Economy, London called, DoorDash continues to out innovate the competition and the EU has a stark choice to make as it relates to the future of autonomy on the continent.

London called and we answered. This week, we hopped across the pond for a series of meetings and to experience a ride in the Wayve car on the left-hand side of the road. While there's a lot of hype around Wayve and how fast they're progressing, we can report that the hype lives up to reality. What Wayve is developing is genuinely impressive.

During our 45-minute drive, which we'll be releasing as a full video at a later date, we experienced naturalistic driving that would be hard to distinguish from a skilled human driver. It was smooth, attentive, and alert, the kind of ride that makes you forget there's no one behind the wheel.

It's now only a matter of time until Wayve removes the safety driver (pending UK regulations) and begins commercial service with Uber in London. Having experienced London traffic firsthand, moving around the city is not easy and the Wayve car handled it flawlessly.

Wayve's progress demonstrates that an AI-first approach to autonomy can unlock rapid technical development. But technology alone isn't enough, scaling autonomous vehicles requires supportive policy decisions.

As we're seeing in Europe today, decisions made years ago are shaping today's competitive landscape in ways policymakers may not have anticipated.

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Companies Mentioned: $DASH ( ▲ 0.42% ), $UBER ( ▼ 0.01% ) 

WHAT’S MOVING THE MARKETS | POLICY

EU President Urges "AI First" Strategy for Autonomous Vehicles While Chinese Companies Seize the Market

During a speech at Italian Tech Week in Turin this week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for Europe to develop autonomous vehicles and deploy them on city streets. "Self-driving cars are already a reality in the United States and China, the same should be true here in Europe," she said.

But is the effort too little too late? Europe has already opened its doors to Chinese autonomous vehicle companies, both through investments and commercial deployments, and the reality is that large numbers of autonomous vehicles will soon be operating across the EU, but they won't be made in Europe.

VW has investments in XPeng and Horizon Robotics, while BMW has a co-development deal with Momenta for autonomous driving technologies. Even though these deals are focused on the China market today, what's to stop those technologies from being imported back into the EU?

Nothing. BMW's partner Momenta is already planning to bring their autonomous vehicles to Europe next year in partnership with Uber. Is any of the tech that was co-developed with BMW in those vehicles? Unsure, but from an optics perspective it's not a good look and it reinforces the fact that Europe is not well prepared for the transition to autonomous vehicles.

The list of Chinese autonomous vehicle companies expanding to Europe keeps growing. Uber has partnerships with Momenta, WeRide, and Baidu. Lyft has a deal with Baidu for Germany. DeepRoute.AI and Pony.AI are also expanding to Europe. Frankly, it's an onslaught, and the EU is about to become saturated with Chinese-made autonomous vehicles at the same time Ms. von der Leyen is calling for Europe to develop and deploy AI-first autonomous vehicles on the continent.

Compare the ever-growing Chinese autonomous vehicle list to European companies with deployment plans and it begins to look like a blowout. For Europe, it's VW with their MOIA brand. For China, it's five different companies and counting, all with grand ambitions.

Now the question becomes, what caused this situation? Was it regulations? Was it culture? Or something entirely different? And when the EU becomes saturated with Chinese-made autonomous vehicles, what happens to Europe's automotive industry? Does it enter secular decline? At the end of the day, how does the sector ultimately compete in autonomy?

Our take: Europe has a choice to make: exporter of autonomy or importer? Right now, the trajectory is clear, Europe is becoming a market for Chinese autonomous vehicles, not a maker of them. Whether Ms. von der Leyen's call to action can reverse this trend remains to be seen, but the window is closing fast.

Companies Mentioned: $UBER ( ▼ 0.01% ), $LYFT ( ▼ 2.74% ), $BIDU ( ▲ 1.26% ), $PONY ( ▼ 1.62% ), $WRD ( ▼ 2.66% ) 

ADVOCATING FOR THE AUTONOMY ECONOMY | SPONSORED

Automation and autonomy will strengthen the economy, create jobs, and reduce inflation. Council for Economic Resilience is dedicated to promoting the future of autonomy and automation for the benefit of the American public.

🥳 Due to overwhelming interest and to accommodate a larger group, we are moving CFER’s DC Policy Summit to Tuesday, November 18, 2025 at 6:00 PM at American Trucking Associations. Register to attend today.

Council for Economic Resilience, Inc. is a 501(c)4 Advocacy Group

PIQUING OUR INTEREST

DoorDash Unveils Dot, the Autonomous Robot and a new Autonomous Delivery Platform DoorDash is positioning itself not just as a delivery service, but as a delivery platform that could one day rival Amazon. With the unveiling of Dot, a purpose-built autonomous delivery robot this week capable of traveling up to 20 mph on roads, bike lanes, and sidewalks, along with a new Autonomous Delivery Platform that orchestrates multi-modal fulfillment across human dashers, robots, and drones, DoorDash is clearly laying the foundation to become the delivery platform of choice.

Serve Robotics Expands to Chicago with Uber Eats In partnership with Uber Eats, Serve Robotics launched an autonomous robot delivery service from over 100 restaurants with dozens of robots this week.

New York City DOT Extends Waymo’s Testing Permit As Waymo eyes a New York City expansion amid political and regulatory hurdles, the NYC DOT extended Waymo's testing permit this week until the end of the year.

Zoox Expands Testing to D.C. Zoox is expanding testing to the nation's capital as the company works towards launching a paid commercial service in multiple cities.

Nissan to Launch Robotaxi Pilot Program in Japan Beginning November 27, 2025, Nissan will commence a limited robotaxi pilot through the end of January 2026 as the company prepares to launch commercial service in 2027 with fleet management and operations partners in Yokohama City, Japan.

📰 Before these stories were featured here, they were available on X. Follow @RoadToAutonomy today to stay up-to-date on the latest news and developments shaping the autonomy economy.

SOCIAL BUZZ | PERSONALLY OWNED AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES

Is Monday, FSD 14 Release Day?

According to Elon, Monday is the day the world gets FSD 14.

Our take: The biggest question now is, how much better will FSD 14 be than v13.2.9, and how much closer does it get us to FSD Unsupervised?

Tesla is currently ranked #1 with a bullish outlook on the AUTONOMY LEADERBOARD in the personally owned autonomous vehicle category.

Companies Mentioned: $TSLA ( ▼ 1.42% )

THE ROAD TO AUTONOMY PODCAST

Peak Car by 2035: The $1.2 Trillion Autonomous Vehicle Industry Takes Shape

(September 30, 2025) Martyn Briggs, Director, Thematic Investing Strategy, Bank of America joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss why 2035 might be the year the car peaks and what that means for the market.

Watch on YouTube | Spotify | X

AUTONOMY MARKETS PODCAST

From London to Dubai Robotaxis are Rapidly Expanding Globally

(October 4, 2025) This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss the accelerating global expansion of robotaxis. In London, Wayve is proving its adaptable, AI-powered autonomous system can navigate complex roadways, from double roundabouts to unpredictable pedestrian interactions without reliance on LiDAR.

Watch on YouTube | Spotify | X

Companies Mentioned: $GOOGL ( ▼ 0.14% ), $TSLA ( ▼ 1.42% ), $MBLY ( ▲ 0.48% ) 

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