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Tetyana Yermolenko
Correspondent
Driverless cars in Ukraine – prospects and timing of their appearance
The dream of cyberpunk and sci-fi lovers is gradually becoming a reality. Driverless cars are rapidly moving from the category of science fiction to reality. Tesla is already testing fully autonomous functions on US roads, Google Waymo is transporting thousands of passengers in San Francisco every day, and Chinese companies are preparing mass production of robotaxis. But is Ukraine ready for this revolution?
What challenges will have to be faced, and what needs to be changed today? The editorial staff of Delo.ua analyzed the state of affairs in the field of autonomous transport and found out when Ukrainians will be able to trust artificial intelligence behind the wheel.
Global context: who already drives without a driver?
According to McKinsey, the autonomous vehicle market will reach $400 billion by 2035. Today, the leaders in the technology are the United States and China, where commercial driverless taxi services are already operating.
In San Francisco, Waymo had more than 312,000 trips in total in San Francisco in August 2024. thousands of driverless trips. Tesla has produced more than 5 million cars with the Autopilot system, and China's BYD plans to equip 30% of its lineup with fully autonomous features by 2025.
A little about the features of unmanned systems
Autonomous driving technologies are rewriting the rules of the road, gradually freeing drivers from routine operations behind the wheel. But how far has this process gone and when will we be able to fully entrust our lives to a machine?
Autonomous driving systems are divided into five levels — from L1, where the car only partially assists the driver (for example, keeping the lane or maintaining distance), to L5, when the vehicle is capable of moving completely without human intervention.
Currently, most commercial models are stuck at levels L2–L3: they can drive themselves in certain situations, say, on the highway during a monotonous trip between cities. But the driver still remains the main actor behind the wheel. He must constantly monitor the process and be ready to take control at any moment when the system admits its powerlessness in the face of the complexity of the road situation.
Ukrainian realities: infrastructure and legislation
Ukraine is not yet developing as rapidly in this area as world leaders. In general, the main inhibiting factors include outdated legislation, weak road infrastructure, and the lack of digital standards.
The current Law of Ukraine “On Road Traffic” still does not contain any mention of autonomous vehicles. Road infrastructure also needs a radical upgrade. Driverless cars require clear road markings, standardized signs, and digital communication with the transport network.
Technological challenges of Ukrainian roads
Computer vision systems, which underlie driverless cars, were trained mainly on Western roads with their standards and peculiarities. Ukrainian specifics create additional difficulties.
Chaotic parking, missing or faded markings, unpredictable behavior of road users: all this can throw even the most advanced algorithms into a dead end. Add to this potholes, unexpected repairs without warning, and unpredictable behavior of pedestrians in cities.
In other words, Ukrainian roads are not yet ready to speak the language of robots. Despite the active renewal of street infrastructure, the quality of road markings remains uneven. Because of this, computer vision systems are confused by fuzzy lines or their absence. After all, a machine, accustomed to clear algorithms, gets lost where a human driver intuitively understands the logic of traffic.
In contrast, in Germany or the Netherlands, road markings are updated around the clock, and the road infrastructure is designed with modern driver assistance systems in mind. This is how stable and accurate the work of technologies is, which in Ukrainian realities often fail where they are most expected.
Psychology of trust: are Ukrainians ready?
In general, Ukrainian society meets the idea of unmanned transport with restrained skepticism. A significant part of citizens is wary of the introduction of autonomous vehicles, and perhaps this is more a defensive reaction to the unknown than a conscious opposition to progress.
But the fears of Ukrainians are quite rational. Technical failures and cyber threats worry potential users no less than industry experts. After all, when life depends on software code, the question “what if something goes wrong?” is quite acute. Moreover, such cases have already occurred. For example, in early 2025, there was a precedent when tech entrepreneur Mike Jones was supposed to get to the airport in Phoenix, but due to a software failure, the car drove in circles in a parking lot in Los Angeles for several hours.
The remote assistance from the operators didn't work, and Jones barely made it to his flight. He later criticized the company for its lack of a human approach to customer service.
Waymo acknowledged the technical glitch and did not charge for the ride. But the incident showed that even the most advanced autonomous systems can falter in unusual situations.
Ethical dilemmas add complexity to the already complex equation of trust. Who should decide who to save in a critical situation: passengers or pedestrians? How to program a machine to make moral choices? These questions go far beyond technical capabilities and touch on the fundamental values of society.
However, the generational gap is obvious: young people aged 18–34 demonstrate a much greater willingness to trust a robotic driver. For them, technological innovations are a natural part of reality, not a cause for concern. It is this generation that will likely become the first mass users of autonomous transport in Ukraine.
Pilot projects and first steps
The Ukrainian tech industry is actively announcing revolutionary projects in the field of autonomous transport, but the reality turns out to be much more modest than the declarations.
Nova Poshta has indeed made attempts to master the airspace – in 2021, the company made a historic drone flight with a parcel from Kyiv to Kharkiv. However, the promised unmanned delivery work in residential complexes still remains in the category of plans.
Ukrzaliznytsia announced two pilot projects for 2025, but they only concern routing and car control, so real unmanned trains are still a long way off.
The Kyiv authorities updated their development strategy until 2027, taking into account martial law, but no specific plans for a “smart city” with unmanned infrastructure were found in the documents.
Regulatory changes and international integration
For the successful implementation of unmanned technologies, Ukraine must adapt European standards. The EU is working on uniform rules for autonomous transport within the framework of the CCAM (Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility) program.
Experts advise Ukraine not to wait for these processes to be completed, but to harmonize national legislation with European requirements now. This will allow Ukrainian companies to participate in international projects and attract foreign investment.
Thus, the priority tasks for preparing Ukraine for the era of autonomous transport include at least five points:
- Adopt basic legislation on testing driverless cars on public roads.
- Develop national road infrastructure standards taking into account the needs of autonomous systems.
- Create pilot zones for testing unmanned technologies in large cities.
- Launch educational programs to retrain transport workers.
- Stimulate the development of domestic IT companies in the field of automotive technologies.
The unmanned revolution is inevitable, but the speed of its spread in Ukraine will depend on political will, investment in infrastructure, and society's willingness to accept new technologies.
