Spain wants to embrace the autonomous car. For now, you have to make do with the new V-16 lights.

The autonomous car is already in operation. Not in Spain, of course. In the United States or China, great progress has been made to implement a key technology for the future of the automotive industry. In our country, however, we are at the starting point.

autonomous car. We think of an autonomous car as one that travels without the need for human intervention. In 2018, Director of the Mobility Services Alliance between Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi, assured us at the Paris Motor Show that year that in 2022 we would see robotaxis on our streets.

Four years later, yes, there are cars transporting people without drivers. The most common example is San Francisco, where Waymo and Cruise already operate. There have even been curious situations in which the police have had to intervene to stop cars without a driver and that, however, did not respond to calls from the security forces.

Level 4. These cars are what are called a “level 4”, within the five existing in the classification of car autonomy levels. This means that they do not have a driver and that the vehicle is capable of stopping by itself if a failure of any kind occurs. The main problem is that they can only circulate in a controlled environment.

In addition to the examples mentioned, Baidu also aims to make a leap next year. According to their promises, they will have 3,000 level 4 vehicles without a steering wheel for the transport of people in China. The jump is important because, in the event of a failure, nothing will allow the car to circulate with the intervention of a driver. They are the same promises that Elon Musk has made about the future Tesla robot taxi.

Europe. In Europe, the autonomous car is taking very slow steps, but there is a race at different speeds. And Spain is not among the fastest countries. At the moment, only level 3 vehicles, such as the most advanced Mercedes, can be driven on the Old Continent. Those that can circulate completely autonomously without the intervention of the driver but that are prepared to send a message and have the driver take control at any time.

In the United Kingdom they are already working on a regulation that gives legal guarantees to the use of autonomous cars, with the aim of defining what can or cannot be done on board a car while it is circulating or who is responsible in the event of an accident at any given time. For example, it is suggested that the driver may be watching streaming television on the screens of the car but not that he may be using the mobile phone.

Spain stagnant. Once again, in Spain we are at the tail end of the investment for the arrival of the autonomous car. According to Anfac in its Report on the connected and autonomous vehicleSpain has the roads in Europe, with the largest number of expressways and obtaining 90.7 points out of a possible 100.

The problem, once again, is investment. Progress in cybersecurity remains low (65 points compared to 87 in the United States). And also in connection (28.4 points compared to 43 in Sweden, the most advanced country) or in technological investment (30 points compared to 67 points in the United States).

And without investment, it is impossible for the autonomous car to arrive in our country. According to Anfac, 23% of the vehicles on the market can achieve level 3 autonomy. However, Germany is the only country in Europe where it is possible to use its functions. And for this they need that the car does not circulate at more than 60 km/h or that the towns are far enough away so that there is no danger of a pedestrian crossing the road.

Without date. The state of the autonomous car in Spain is summed up well by Sara Nicolás, head of external affairs at Goggo Networks, in words collected by elEconomista.es: “The next step would be to determine how our vehicles would work, which would be the responsible committee that would be in charge of all the issues that have to do with both regulation and ethical aspects and other distinctive aspects that may arise in the use of these technologies and then start testing to ensure safety.

These are steps that the DGT sees with good eyes, as it believes that they can reduce the volume of accidents on the road. But, at the moment, the State is immersed in the development of DGT 3.0the platform that will launch warnings to vehicles to alert them of accidents or sporting events and that will force them to change the classic warning triangles for V-16 lights.