Niulinx, 'without changes to the Highway Code, autonomous driving goes abroad'

There is alarm among Italian companies committed to developing autonomous driving due to the new Highway Code which for the first time recognizes automated driving vehicles providing that they can also be monitored remotely. But remote supervision refers to a decree that does not yet exist: until then the car controller will have to stay on board.

"The text of the new Highway Code sent by MIT to Parliament recognizes for the first time the possibility of having a car that drives itself and this is good news. But it has two fundamental defects that make this text repellent for those who want to give Italy services based on autonomous driving on public roads: it still requires the presence of a driver on board and leaves the responsibility with the latter even if he obviously doesn't have one.

Since legislative processes by their nature take a long time, the risk that the country is running is that operators like Niulinx will first go to other European countries with more advanced codes to provide their services. It would be a missed opportunity for Italy", explains to ANSA Luca Foresti, CEO of Niulinx, the spin-off of the Polytechnic of Milan which employs 100 people in the development of a level 4 automated driving system, with proprietary hardware and software, installed on standard Fiat 500e and already being tested on the road in Italy.

If the text is not modified, those involved in autonomous driving in Italy will have to take the homologation tests abroad, in countries such as Germany and Spain which already have adequate rules. So investments, engineers and the industrial supply chain that grows around it will move elsewhere. Niulinx, which already has an office in Munich, risks being among the first to do so. Yet Italy has leading skills in the sector, recalls the number one of the Milanese company, which in April raised 38 million euros from investors of the caliber of Cdp Venture Capital, A2a, Ferrovie dello Stato and Pirelli.