You know things are bad when startup founders in the US start saying, with a straight face, “This company wouldn’t exist if we had started in Europe” [1] —> not as humblebrag, but as a completely accurate economic diagnosis. Europe totally lost the plot on self-driving cars because it regulates like a nervous librarian, funds like a slow-motion bake sale, and then holds panels on why it’s falling behind. While San Francisco has Waymo and Cruise dueling for robo-taxi supremacy (and China has many more starting with Pony AI), Europe’s most promising autonomous vehicle deployment is still in “development” and probably delayed because Brussels needs three more committees to harmonize parking lot signage.
Now comes the part where some EU commissioner gives a speech in Turin about “tech sovereignty” and “AI gigafactories” while the rest of the world deploys actual, functioning tech at scale. The reality is that you can’t innovate at committee speed, and you can’t build transformative platforms when your national funding schemes cap out at EUR2.3 million and come with 900-page grant applications. Meanwhile, in the US, someone can raise $40 million off a Figma prototype and vibes. Europe’s strategy seems to be “wait until American/Chinese companies are so dominant they open a showroom in Munich, and then complain about fairness”.
Maybe someday Europe will get a real AI car on the road. Until then, enjoy the clean sidewalks and good win, because the future isn’t stopping there. a16z, Bloomberg
