Passengers ride in an autonomous electric van operated by a Volkswagen subsidiary on the streets of Hamburg, Germany, June 30, 2021. The vehicles steer themselves, but technicians working from a remote control center keep an eye on their progress with the help of video monitors. (Felix Schmitt/The New York Times)


This futuristic vision, within reach of current technology, is about to become legal in Germany. The Parliament in Berlin approved a new law on autonomous driving in May, and it awaits the signature of Germany's president, a formality. The law opens a path for companies to start making money from autonomous driving services, which could also spur development.


So German companies that are pursuing the technology have adjusted their ambitions, focusing on moneymaking uses that don't require major breakthroughs.


Some states have encouraged autonomous driving research; Arizona allows Waymo, for example, to offer driverless taxis in Phoenix. But it's not yet possible to roll out such services nationwide, achieving the kind of scale that would help make them profitable.

"Germany is unique in the sense that you now have a law that pertains to the entire country," said Elliot Katz, the chief business officer of Phantom Auto, a California company that provides software to monitor and control vehicles remotely. "In the U.S., we do not have any overarching federal autonomous driving regulation. We have state laws, which is problematic because driving is inherently interstate."


"There are two major topics for the German car manufacturers: the change to electric cars and autonomous driving," said Moritz Hüsch, a partner at the Covington law firm in Frankfurt, who has followed the legislation. "The German car manufacturers are one of our crown jewels. They are really keen to get at the forefront of both topics."




If a driver can oversee a dozen buses from a command center, "there are use cases that would now be attractive," said Peter Liggesmeyer, director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering in Kaiserslautern. That will encourage more development, he said.


Volkswagen, for example, has been testing a ride-sharing service in Hamburg and Hanover called Moia. The new law makes it easier for Volkswagen to achieve its goal of converting Moia's electric vans to autonomous operation by 2025, though further changes in the country's public transport law may also be needed.

"The use of self-driving vehicles in Germany is now possible," Christian Senger, a senior vice president at Volkswagen's commercial vehicles division responsible for autonomous driving, said in a statement. "That is something that not only Volkswagen but all market participants have been waiting for."

Technology companies like Waymo or carmakers like Toyota have invested billions of dollars in autonomous driving technology, but have yet to see much return on their investment. Uber sold its self-driving unit last year after investing more than $1 billion. Fatal crashes involving Tesla's Autopilot software have raised questions about the technology's shortcomings.

Whether a uniform legal framework will give German companies a decisive edge over U.S. companies is another question. That was the intent.

"Germany can be the first country in the world to bring vehicles without drivers from the laboratory into everyday use," Arno Klare, a Social Democratic member of Parliament, said during debate about the law in Berlin.



"There is an international arms race between the U.S., Europe and China," said Rajkumar, who estimates that fully autonomous vehicles are still a decade away. "China is an authoritarian country. They can pass any rules they want overnight."

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.