EU launches ADACities for autonomous driving

The autonomous driving initiative will support robo-taxis, car-sharing and autonomous shuttles.

The European Commission has launched the Autonomous Drive Ambition Cities initiative to support the deployment of autonomous driving technologies in cities across the EU.

The initiative, known as ADACities, was announced by Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen during the first international forum of the European Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Alliance in Brussels.

The Commission said ADACities will serve as a mobility flagship under the Apply AI Strategy, allowing selected EU cities to become real-world deployment sites for autonomous mobility innovation.

The initiative will support technologies such as robo-taxis, car-sharing services, autonomous shuttles for multimodal urban mobility and advanced self-driving cars. Participating cities will target fleets of 100 or more autonomous vehicles by 2030.

The Commission said partnerships supported by ADACities should be EU-centric, with European vehicle manufacturers and technology providers at the core, while still allowing international collaboration.

The initiative is also linked to the EU Technological Sovereignty Package. The Commission said autonomous driving deployment will draw on European capabilities in semiconductors, sovereign cloud and data infrastructure, AI Factories and open-source technologies.

ADACities builds on a joint declaration of intent to create a cross-border testbed for automated vehicle deployment. The Commission has opened a call for expressions of interest and will hold an online information session for cities and stakeholders.

Why does it matter?

ADACities shows how the EU is treating autonomous driving as part of AI deployment, urban mobility and industrial competitiveness, not only as a transport technology. By linking autonomous mobility to sovereign cloud, semiconductors, data infrastructure and AI Factories, the Commission is framing city-level deployment as a test of Europe’s ability to turn AI and automotive expertise into scalable public services. The initiative also raises governance questions around safety, liability, infrastructure readiness, data use and public trust.