German group Bosch is in talks with local authorities to get the permit for testing autonomous cars on the streets of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca, local Hotnews.ro reported.

“We consider two things: we are in talks to get the authorization for these tests and on the other hand we are thinking of building a test run near Cluj, either with partners or on our own, where we can safely see what these autonomous cars can do. The first step would be the test track, while the second step would involve the cars to run autonomously in Cluj, but for that we need a permit,” said Dennis Raabe, head of Bosch Engineering Center in Cluj.

The road tests would be done with two people in the car, namely one who will focus on driving and will intervene if needed, and another one who will track the collected data.

For a few years now, the German group has been testing in Cluj the soft that will be used in the future on self-driving cars. The cars are always under the control of the driver while the algorithms are tested in different situations to see which elements they are able to recognise in traffic and how they can be improved.

Bosch opened its engineering center in Cluj-Napoca in 2013 and currently has some 400 employees working for this center in several locations in the city. The company announced in late March that it would invest EUR 25 million in a new center that would bring all the 400 employees together under the same roof.

German group Bosch’s companies in Romania recorded total net sales of RON 4.2 billion (EUR 931 million) in 2017, up 57% compared to the previous year.

Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com