A fully autonomous driving Maserati Granturismo from AIdoptation has been granted permission to legally cruise the E313 and E314 at 120 km/h. At the same time, the person in the driver’s seat does something else entirely. This is the first time that Level 4 driving has been permitted on public roads anywhere in Europe.
Tesla has been dominating the news lately, as it was given authorization to deploy Full Self-Driving (Supervised) in Flanders. And in Germany, Mercedes is allowed to operate its limousines on hands-off mode in limited circumstances, such as traffic jams.
No driver intervention required
AIdoptation, an American start-up with headquarters in Sint-Truiden, is taking things one step further. After the company test-drove its Level 4 system on a closed course, it is now moving to public roads. De Tijd unveiled the news. Flanders’ greenlighting of the technology is a European first.
Level 4 means that the Maserati GranTurismo from AIdoptation is capable of performing the driving task without the driver needing to pay close attention. This makes a significant difference with the lower levels, where driver intervention and responsibility are still required under all circumstances.
Pre-mapped stretch
However, the self-driving Maserati isn’t granted free rein. Its operating field is limited to a pre-mapped stretch of 100 kilometers on the E313 and E314, and the car – obviously – must comply with the maximum speed limit of 120 km/h.
Although the vehicle can drive the trajectory entirely on its own, a backup driver will be present at all times. The testing on public roads remains within the realm of prototype calibration. It’s not a commercial product (yet).
To De Tijd, AIdoptation CEO Paul Mitchell said the permission took one year to materialize. He notes that the Belgian authorities focused on two areas: safety and data protection. Where exactly the car’s sensor data goes, who owns them, and how it is shielded were evidently as important as the lidar stack itself, which governs the car.
Why is the highway challenging?
One is inclined to think that the active cruise control systems of current-generation cars can come close to, or even replicate, the behavior of the AIdoptation car, as highway driving is a much less complex environment than bustling cities, where unexpected behavior from pedestrians or cyclists poses bigger hurdles.
AIdoptation engineer Louis Jacobs disagrees with that point of view. According to him, the system must process more data faster and react quicker at 120 km/h. A stalled truck or a sudden lane closure does not forgive a slow decision.
Reality confirms this point of view. Waymo, the Google-backed robotaxi company operating in the US, voluntarily banned robotaxi operations on freeways because its cars struggle to detect roadwork.
A long way coming
But higher speeds are a specialty of American AIdoptation. The choice of a Maserati GranTurismo, which couldn’t be further from the concept of an automated people mover, reflects this.
AIdoptaion is a commercial spin-off from the Indy Autonomous Challenge, the American nonprofit that spent years breaking speed records with university-built autonomous race cars. Their latest autonomous top speed is 318 km/h, as recorded during tests at Cape Canaveral. Their roots lie in racing, not mobility.
Maybe the strongest victory is that Flanders has taken the European lead in legally enabling the development of advanced-level autonomous driving on its roads.
This ambition stems from the former Minister of Mobility, Lydia Peeters (Anders), who developed a detailed roadmap for autonomous driving back in 2023 to beat the United Kingdom in speed and catch up with the robotaxi evolution in the US and China.
Though this plan targeted commercial operations as of 2026, it cleared the way for investment and for the testing that AIdoptation now begins performing.
