Germany Advances Autonomous Driving Policy

Experts argue that the shift to autonomous driving requires a fundamental rethink of mobility, moving from private car ownership toward shared, public‑type transport. The German government's new electric‑vehicle funding programme is cited as a catalyst for broader adoption of self‑driving technology, while acknowledging that simply swapping the current 50 million internal‑combustion cars for electric ones is unrealistic.

Car‑sharing operators such as Drive Now (a Sixt‑BMW joint venture) and Car2go (Mercedes‑owned) are highlighted as successful models already operating at scale. However, the cluster notes that Europe, and Germany in particular, lags behind the United States and Asian markets in embracing autonomous and shared mobility, largely due to insufficient policy incentives and infrastructure constraints.