Smart cities

Turin nominates itself as a laboratory city in Europe for autonomous driving

The City counts on its innovation ecosystem, existing experiments and the automotive supply chain - Dossier presented

by Filomena Greco

12 December 2025

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Turin brings to the table its 'heritage' consisting of an ecosystem of 734 registered innovative start-ups, 3.7% of the national total, many of them in the AI, digital health, smart mobility and Industry 4.0; an R&D expenditure of EUR 3.1 billion, equal to 2.1% of the regional GDP; the presence of the AI4Industry (AI4I) Foundation, a national centre of competence on Artificial Intelligence for the manufacturing industry, based in Turin; an industrial fabric with 38.7% of manufacturing companies that have introduced innovations, either process or product.

The City of Turin and the Piedmont Region are therefore presenting their candidacy dossier in Brussels to be the first in Europe to test autonomous driving systems in the city for artificial intelligence applications in healthcare. The aim is to make Turin the European Union's laboratory city for autonomous driving experimentation and the regional health system for artificial intelligence applications in the diagnostic, organisational and telemedicine fields.

The document was presented to Roberto Viola, DG Communication, Networks, Contents and Technologies of the European Commission. The city is not starting from scratch, and the idea is to transform these experiences into a formal path within the European network of autonomous driving pilot cities, with the aim of hosting new phases of experimentation through real-life tests with AI governance models that will also allow the monitoring of vehicle flows.

"The aim is to be the first city in Europe where a driverless car used for public service, i.e. a taxi or shuttle, is tried out on a public road, as is already the case with the experimentation in the area of the university campus," explains the President of the Piedmont Region, Alberto Cirio.

In the next few weeks, Europe will launch a call and Turin wants to intercept this strategic interest of the Commission, strengthened by the expertise in the field offered by the Politecnico and companies in the automotive industry. The model is represented by cities such as San Francisco or Denver, which have a public mobility service with driverless cars.

As far as the health sector is concerned, on the other hand, AI applications are linked to the possibility of making diagnoses outside hospitals. In Piedmont, more than 40 per cent of the territory is mountainous, thus lending itself to extensive experimentation with the telemedicine booth system that Europe intends to initiate and support, a system whereby it is possible to carry out examinations and check a patient's health condition, in the presence of a trained social-health worker, with the doctor in video link-up from a hospital.

"Today," explained Mayor Stefano Lo Russo, "Turin is a laboratory where the future is being experimented with thanks to its ability to combine its manufacturing vocation, which is an integral part of its history and present, with its capacity to be a place of innovation and a model for ecological transition. For 2024-2025, the city has been named European Innovation Capital, 'a title conferred on it by the European Union, which has recognised its ability to generate and attract high-level projects, from sustainable mobility to artificial intelligence, from manufacturing 4.0 to advanced research, and to bring together university and enterprise, tradition and technology. We want to present ourselves as a crucial node in the European innovation ecosystem'.

Since October, the experimentation of the AuToMove electric self-driving shuttle, part of the Living Lab ToMove project dedicated to the development of new smart and sustainable urban mobility solutions, started on the city's roads, the first in Italy. "A project that allows us to explore new technological solutions capable of ensuring efficient and safe travel, and on the strength of which, together with an unrivalled tradition in the automotive sector and such a fertile innovation ecosystem, we truly believe that Turin and Piedmont can become the European reference centre for Artificial Intelligence applied to autonomous driving.

Filomena Grecoredattrice
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Luogo: Torino
Lingue parlate: Italiano, inglese
Argomenti: Industria, automotive, mercato dell'auto, lavoro, Piemonte
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