Europe is not lagging behind in autonomous transportation because it lacks technology or laws. It is lagging behind because it is unable to align the legal framework with a specific vehicle that is granted permission to operate without a driver. SEVA Director Patrik Križanský highlighted this very gap during a panel on transportation automation at the Nowa Mobilność 2026 Congress in Katowice.
The contrast with other regions is striking. According to European Commission data, by the end of 2025, robotaxis were operating in 27 cities in China and in eight in the U.S. In the European Union, not a single such publicly known service existed. Yet the EU has had an approval process for vehicles with automated driving capabilities since 2022. So far, however, no vehicle has publicly passed through this process.
“Europe isn’t caught between technology and the law. It’s caught between the law and an approved vehicle,” a panelist remarked. For smaller countries, this also presents an opportunity. What matters may not be the size of the market, but the authority’s ability to assess the system’s safety and make a decision.
Slovakia has an operational framework, not a fully developed market
The Slovak Parliament approved an amendment to the rules for fully automated vehicles on September 16, 2026. Starting December 1, it is set to pave the way for licenses for the commercial operation of driverless vehicles. However, the amendment is not a free pass for robotaxis across the entire road network.
It establishes a process ranging from testing off public roads, through trial operations on public roads, to obtaining an operator’s license, approval of a specific service, and a transport permit. Each project must specify the particular vehicle, control system, route or operating area, and safety conditions.
An important new feature is the supervisory operator in the control center. This is not a formal position. If an operator takes control of one vehicle, they cannot simultaneously supervise another. It is precisely the ratio between the number of operators and vehicles that will determine whether autonomous mobility becomes a economically sustainable service. This parameter is to be specified in an implementing regulation.
Slovakia is therefore not yet a European leader in autonomous mobility. However, it does have the basic operational framework that it previously lacked. The real test will come with the first application for a pilot operation, the capacity of government agencies, and the content of the implementing regulations.
Central Europe Has the Pieces of the Puzzle
Poland has introduced a regime for testing SAE Level 3 through 5 autonomous vehicles on public roads, effective June 2026. It has experience with testing, specialized institutions, and its own research capabilities. However, it does not yet have a framework that would allow for commercial operation with remote supervision.
Slovakia, on the other hand, has a new framework for operating licenses. Hungary offers the ZalaZONE testing facility. It is precisely the combination of Polish testing, Slovak operational licensing, and Hungarian infrastructure that can create a stronger regional platform than three isolated national projects.
This is the goal of the V4SDV Connect initiative, which is being developed by SEVA, the Polish association PSNM, and the ZONE Cluster with support from the International Visegrad Fund. Autonomous transportation requires cross-border testing, common safety principles, and mutual recognition of permits.
However, Slovakia is not among the 18 countries that signed a declaration in June 2026 to create cross-border testing environments for autonomous vehicles. Poland is among the signatories. Signing the declaration would be a simple yet important step toward regional cooperation for Slovakia.
The law alone will not approve a vehicle
The biggest obstacle is not just regulation, but the technical capability to verify an automated driving system. An operating license is meaningless if the vehicle does not have legally recognized capability to drive itself.
Slovakia needs to designate a technical service or establish a clear procedure capable of assessing the safety of an automated system. Without such capacity, every successful test may run into the same barrier: the vehicle works, but no one has the authority to confirm its safety for the next step.
Another issue is the economics of oversight. An autonomous vehicle is never completely on its own. It needs people in a control center, ready to intervene in the event of an unusual situation. What matters is not how many vehicles an operator monitors on average, but how many incidents the fleet can handle simultaneously. This determines the service’s costs, its price, and its scalability.
Autonomy Addresses Driver Shortages, Safety, and Energy
The first practical applications of autonomous transportation will not be the same everywhere. It may first prove helpful where there is a shortage of drivers: in freight transport between logistics hubs, on dedicated routes, and in repetitive operational scenarios. The shortage of truck and bus drivers is a Europe-wide problem that will only worsen without new solutions.
Another key issue is safety. Data from Waymo’s operations show a lower accident rate compared to human drivers in the same cities and under the same conditions. While these results cannot be mechanically applied to every vehicle or every city, they do demonstrate that safe autonomous operation is technically feasible.
At the same time, autonomous fleets are naturally moving toward electric propulsion. Vehicles return to designated depots, follow scheduled routes, and charge at predictable times. This type of operation makes sense not only for the transportation provider but also for the energy sector. An electric autonomous fleet can operate efficiently in terms of charging, grid capacity, and renewable energy sources.
For Slovakia, autonomy is also a matter of industrial policy. The country manufactures a large number of cars, but value is gradually shifting from mechanical components to software, data, sensors, computing technology, and operational services. If Slovakia remains merely an assembly base, it will lose out on a portion of the automotive industry’s future value.