Autonomous vehicles are no longer a question of if, but how. The road to practical autonomy, however, is long and winding. In this talk, Kalle Raita of Digisalix examines what it takes to move from promising prototypes to safe, scalable deployment. He presents practical approaches to autonomous path planning, including example architectures, technical prerequisites and three algorithmic strategies for reliable autonomous decision-making. Beyond engineering, the session addresses ecosystem and regulatory barriers to deployment – challenges we must solve together. The conclusion is straightforward: technology alone is not enough. Industry must actively help shape regulation to keep Europe competitive.

• How to design vehicle architecture and technology roadmaps for autonomous driving, including sensor strategy and modular system design
• How to build reliable autonomous path-planning software, compare key approaches and verify performance in practice
• How to move from prototypes to production systems and how far the autonomy can be pushed
• Call to action: the fastest route to autonomy at scale is industry collaboration on shared standards and fit-for-purpose regulation