Europe is falling behind in the artificial intelligence race, especially in high-risk areas such as autonomous driving technology, because it is being bogged down in unnecessary red tape.
That’s the view of Bosch CEO Stefan Hartung addressing the company’s Tech Day 2025 at its headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany.
The company is heavily involved in developing AI across the whole range of its products, from kitchen equipment and construction tools to autonomous driving software and systems.
He points out that Bosch, which owns the bulk of AI global patents in Europe, plans to invest €2.5 billion ($2.9 billion) into AI by the end of 2027 with the expectation that revenues earned from automated driving software alone will double to €10 billion ($11.7 billion) by 2030.
However, Europe’s strict AI regulations are now becoming a threat to continuing investment. “Disappointingly, it looks for the moment that compared to the rest of the world, Europe is delaying its AI future with excessive regulation without need,” Hartung complains.
Hartung says he supports the economic bloc’s ambitions to bring in uniform rules for ”trustworthy AI” targets, “But to implement those regulations, developers need to have clear guidelines and standards. These are now set to be introduced much later and are causing some confusion.”
Regulations are particularly onerous in high-risk applications such as autonomous driving with AI systems needing to be continuously tested and documented.
“This bureaucracy is very strict, and insufficiently clear requirements conspire to make Europe much less attractive as an AI location compared to China and the U.S.,” bemoans Hartung. “What we lack in courage today, we will lack in security and sovereignty tomorrow.”
He pointed to Stanford University’s annual AI Index for 2024 that shows 40 significant AI models were developed in the U.S., 15 in China and just three in Europe despite its competitive advantage “with its wealth of industrial experience and access to data.”
To address this issue, Europe must also invest in education and Hartung calls for AI to be taught in schools to reflect the success Bosch has seen with its own AI Academy.
