Successful demonstration of the autonomous vehicle at Louvain at the request of the European Commission

At the request of Mr. Maroš Šefčovič, vice president of energy and transport at the European Commission, the VEDECOM Institute presented a demonstration of its autonomous vehicle on Wednesday, 2 May in Louvain, Belgium. This event was organised following an announcement by the European Commission of the package relating to autonomous vehicles at the opening of the 2018 AND& summit & festival organised by the city of Louvain from 2 to 4 May.

Maroš Šefčovič was a passenger in the VEDECOM autonomous vehicle on an autonomous driving course in the centre of Louvain and was interviewed on Facebook Live for thirty minutes, a video that was broadcast on the European Commission’s website.

Testimonial of Maroš Šefčovič

“Let me personally thank you for your special efforts in producing yesterday’s Facebook Live from inside a driverless car…. You were therefore all putting extra effort and even taking the risk but the result speaks for itself; it was well worthwhile!
It is a constant challenge for the EU institutions to speak with citizens in engaging, inspiring, and innovative ways. I am therefore very glad to see that our colleagues are ready to take on such important challenges and I assure you that I will continue to support such ‘smart’ initiatives in the future.”

The Institute also had a stand at the Place de l’Église to present the advances in VEDECOME research into autonomous vehicles to journalists and the general public and to offer an interactive quiz on tablets.

At the end of the day, a press conference at the City Museum was an opportunity for Maroš Šefčovič, Mohamed Ridouani (the assistant mayor of Louvain), Johan Merlevede (the festival director), and Luc Marbach (CEO of VEDECOM) to remind everyone of the challenges and the required changes relating to new mobility options.

To watch the Facebook Live, click here