On April 3rd, top-level politicians, researchers and industry representatives from Luxembourg, France and Germany gathered in Schengen to see the first live demos of autonomous cars using the digital cross-border testbed that links the three countries.
Autonomous and connected driving opens up completely new perspectives for mobility of tomorrow. However, there are still hurdles to overcome, in particular for self-driving vehicles travelling in several different countries.
The testbed project day was organised in the Luxembourg village of Schengen, the birthplace of Europe with open borders. “We’re sending a message to the world from Luxembourg today: the EU can quickly put autonomous driving into practice,”announced Andreas Scheuer, Germany’s Federal Minister of Transport.
Ministers proclaimed that autonomous driving will make driving a safer venture and be a success for both mobility and the environment. Now that the first steps have been undertaken, those involved will work to make autonomous driving a reality.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy Etienne Schneider highlighted Luxembourg’s strategic position in the European automobile industry and claimed that the country is keen to become an area for autonomous driving experiments, remaining at the forefront of technology relating to “cooperative, connected, and automatic” cross-border driving.