Robotaxi rules in Europe: what each country allows

In most of Europe a robotaxi can carry passengers only inside an approved area, under a permit, with a person who can step in, whether on board or watching from elsewhere. No country yet lets driverless taxis run commercially without that kind of case-by-case approval. The UK and Germany have gone furthest in writing permanent rules; Denmark, Switzerland and Spain work through trials and pilots.

Here is what each country requires, as of October 2026.

At a glance

The EU sets the vehicle, not the service

At EU level, the rules cover the vehicle. Since 2022 a fully automated vehicle can get EU-wide type approval for its automated driving system, but only in small series: at most 1,500 vehicles of a type per year.¹ Everything about running a service, from where it may drive to who supervises it, is still decided country by country.

In June 2026, 18 member states signed a declaration of intent to work on common principles for approval and coordinated permitting for cross-border tests, starting with public transport and freight.² It is a commitment to work together, not a common rulebook.

United Kingdom

The Automated Vehicles Act 2024 created a permit for automated passenger services: taxi, private-hire and bus-like services without a driver. The permits have been available for pilots since 15 May 2026. They are granted by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, and a taxi or private-hire style service also needs the consent of the local licensing authority. Pilot permits are expected to last 12 to 18 months, and the rest of the Act is due from late 2027.³

Until then, London's first robotaxi service runs under the ordinary private-hire rules: Transport for London licensed Wayve's cars as private-hire vehicles, so each one carries a licensed driver.⁴

Germany

Germany wrote Level 4 into its Road Traffic Act in 2021. A driverless vehicle needs approval from the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) and may only run in an operating area approved by the federal state's authority, or by the Autobahn company on motorways. National approval is limited to small series.⁵

Every vehicle must have a technical supervisor: a person, not a system, who can switch the vehicle off and approve a manoeuvre it proposes, but does not drive it.⁶

Separate from the vehicle rules, ride-hail cars in Germany must return to their base after each trip unless the next order is already in. Whether robotaxis will carry the same duty is still debated.⁷

Denmark

Denmark allows self-driving vehicles through a trial scheme. Since 1 July 2025, the Danish Road Directorate (Vejdirektoratet) grants permission for trials up to SAE Level 4, in defined areas and, if it chooses, at defined times. A permit lasts up to two years and can be renewed after the road authority, the police and any private road owners are heard.⁸

Every trial needs a person who can take over: either a driver in the vehicle or an operator outside it. The application must include an assessment of road safety by an approved assessor, a map of the roads covered and a plan for the data the vehicles collect. GreenMobility and WeRide's plan for robotaxis in Copenhagen in 2027 runs through this process.

Switzerland

Switzerland's Ordinance on Automated Driving has applied since 1 March 2025. It lets driverless vehicles run within operating areas approved by the canton where they are registered, under the supervision of an operator; the federal roads office must agree if an area includes a motorway. As of August 2026 no operating area had been approved under it, so every project, including the iamo service near Zurich, runs as a pilot instead.⁹

Spain

Spain's traffic authority, the DGT, approved the ES-AV programme in June 2025. It authorises tests of automated and remotely driven vehicles in three phases: controlled, extensive and pre-deployment. In September 2026, WeRide, Uber and AVOMO received the first national Level 4 permit for passenger vehicles, for 20 cars in Madrid with a safety operator on board at first.¹⁰

What Spain does not have yet is the royal decree that would let driverless vehicles run outside a test. As of September 2026 it had not been published.

Elsewhere

Croatia has Europe's first commercial robotaxi service, in Zagreb; since September some rides on one route have had nobody at the wheel.¹¹ Elsewhere, from Luxembourg to Norway, robotaxis are at the trial or planning stage. Who runs what, where, is in Robotaxi companies in Europe.

What it means for cities

Across all of these, one thing is the same: the area a robotaxi may drive in is approved locally, by a German state, a Swiss canton, a London licensing authority or the Danish Road Directorate after hearing the road authority. Where a robotaxi may wait between rides falls inside that area, and so inside that decision.

That is the question staging areas answer, and the one Lanoo helps cities run once several operators share them.

Sources

1. Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/1426. See the Federal Motor Transport Authority, EU type approvals for motor vehicles with a fully automated driving function in small series. ↩

2. European Commission, EU Ministers back cross-border initiative for autonomous vehicle testbeds, 8 June 2026. ↩

3. Jones Day, Driverless vehicles on British roads: operating under the self-driving pilot scheme, June 2026. ↩

4. The Next Web, Uber and Wayve launch London's first robotaxi service, with a safety driver in every car, September 2026. ↩

5. Federal Motor Transport Authority, National type approval for motor vehicles with a fully automated driving function. ↩

6. § 1d(3) of the Road Traffic Act (StVG). ↩

7. § 49(4) of the Passenger Transport Act (PBefG); see taxi heute and, on the debate, Tagesspiegel Background. ↩

8. Executive Order no. 925 of 24 June 2025 on trials with self-driving motor vehicles (in Danish). ↩

9. SAAM, Robotaxis in Switzerland: what the current framework allows, August 2026. ↩

10. Demócrata, Spain, awaiting regulation to operate without a driver, September 2026. ↩

11. Euronews, Look, no hands: Euronews rode driverless in Europe's first robotaxi in Zagreb, October 2026. ↩