I would like to see some solid proof on this, as I don't buy this claim.
The EU has squeezed telcoms on roaming charges which created a lot of howling. The EU also has rather strict regulation concerning gas use of cars, ICE emissions and so on, probably second only to California. The EU approach to food and pharma security is fundamentally different to that of the USA, and it impacts EU companies. Regulations around green GMOs are so strict they basically killed the European market for GMOs.
This was Germany the government, not the car companies. We're not perfect here in the EU either. But indeed the interests do seem more balanced than in the US in general.
This whole ICE thing is something even most of the German car manufacturers do not want. It was also not part of the coalition contract made by the government.
The smallest party (FDP) in the coalition went on a solo power trip against their partners. The partners relented because they need the FDP to fall in line with more important stuff.
Also worth noting that the FDP is currently getting voted out of more and more state parliaments because people are not happy with their work.
Also regulation to automatically limit speed of cars - the biggest low hanging fruit when it comes to safety and quality of life in cities keeps getting delayed and crippled because of car manufacturers want to sell fast cars.
Is it just car manufacturers who are not keen on the idea? I for one don’t want a computer that has zero situational awareness, interfering with the controls when I’m driving and responsible for the vehicle.
The ability of computers to control the vehicle should be proportional to their perceptive abilities. No output without input.
If you’re concerned about the EU speed limiting directive it’s so permissive you can override the control just by using your gas pedal.
(No comment on the how this is different to e-bike and scooters where hard limits are mandated despite the much lower speeds and masses involved)
Computers don't have zero situational awareness anymore, look at what Tesla is doing.
But even strict limiters without intelligence are commonplace, here in the EU most trucks are fitted with them. Which can be annoying because it causes trucks to overtake each other ridiculously slowly sometimes. It's not something that causes major safety issues though.
Tesla's FSD, despite a decade of promises, is still not ready. Most (non-Tesla) cars have some speed limit display, either based on vision or maps, and it works ~90% of the time. It's okay as a FYI, but not reliable enough to be more than that.
Before we can mandate software to observe the limits, we need proper software-readable signage.
Sometimes signs are placed between two roads running in parallel, and apply to the other one. Humans understand that subtlety in sign position, but computer vision doesn't. Signs can also be obscured by trees, etc.
My car's GPS-based speed detection doesn't understand height, so on crossings with bridges/overpasses it picks one at random. When I drive on a highway it can briefly flip to a speed limit of some ramp, and I wouldn't want this to cause phantom breaking.
It's very easy to make it reliable even if limited. For example detecting if you're within city borders and limiting your speed to 50km/h would improve things immensely. Add to that a complete no-brainer of limiting the top speed to say 140km/h. It still wouldn't be perfect but we don't need perfect. We need a way to stop the terror and danger speeding drivers impose on others.
That we can pass e-bike speed limit in short time without even asking people if they want it while we can't limit cars, which actually cause hundred of thousands of deaths and injuries per year tells you all you need to know about the state of things.
When it comes to limiting speed zero situational awareness is great. Somehow we all accept it for light benign vehicles like e-bikes and e-scooters - 1500+kg metal boxes with limited visibility though? - can't have that!
The situational awareness of humans seems to be the problem here:
It's either "let's make everyone look at me by making a lot of noise" or
"nobody's looking, I'll ignore the speed limit"
Not arguing particulary in favor of AI here. I just happen to hate the perception of private vehicles as extension of one's individual freedom. The restrictions imposed on e.g. pedestrians caused by this thinking tend to be ignored.
Public transit for everyone, cars for goods, services and emergencies, that would be my utopia.
That is hardly the fault of the EU, but one member state. Everyone points to the evil bureaucratic EU, but in reality, member states frequently get in the way of the EU to protect their industry.
In both cases, Germany had to accept rules they would have never accepted if they were outside of the EU - even if they sadly were able to soften them up.
By the way, the way farmers destroyed McDonalds in France in the 2000's created a wake up call for the company to adapt its offers to the local markets. Afterwards France was the fastest growing market and the "recipe" was then exported all over the world. This really interesting to read about it.
The EU has squeezed telcoms on roaming charges which created a lot of howling. The EU also has rather strict regulation concerning gas use of cars, ICE emissions and so on, probably second only to California. The EU approach to food and pharma security is fundamentally different to that of the USA, and it impacts EU companies. Regulations around green GMOs are so strict they basically killed the European market for GMOs.