Aidoptation Receives Approval for First Fully Autonomous Driving Tests on Highways in the European Union

SINT-TRUIDEN, Belgium--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 9, 2026--

Aidoptation BV, the autonomous vehicle technology company headquartered at DronePort in Sint-Truiden, has received official approval from the Federal Public Service Mobility (FOD) and Transport and the Flemish Agency for Roads and Traffic (AWV) to conduct fully autonomous driving tests on public highways. The permit covers 100 km on the E313 and E314 highways in the province of Limburg, and marks the first time a Level 4 fully autonomous driving system will be tested at highway speeds on public roads in the European Union.

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Within the global automotive industry, Level 4 is defined as autonomous driving capable of performing all driving tasks and monitoring the environment without any human intervention. This level of autonomy is distinct from the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) that have been tested by several automakers (OEMs) in the European Union, including Tesla FSD, which is classified as Level 2 requiring constant driver supervision; the human driver remains legally liable for the vehicle's actions. The testing will be conducted using the Maserati GranTurismo Folgore electric vehicle platform, which Aidoptation has equipped with LiDAR, radar, and camera sensors, as well as robotics hardware, to enable full autonomous driving at highway speeds.

The permit approval is a decisive step in Aidoptation’s mission to develop life-saving autonomous driving technology for the most severe category of road accidents: high-speed crashes on motorways, where at 120 km/h a vehicle covers more than 50 meters in the 1.5 seconds it takes an average driver to react. Accidents at such speeds are rare but often result in death or severe injuries, roadway closures, and loss of property and infrastructure. Safely managing obstacles and crash-avoidance maneuvers, known as “edge-cases” at highway speeds, remains a key step toward unlocking the full potential of autonomous driving technologies.

Aidoptation and EdgeDrive

Aidoptation was founded in 2025 as a commercial spin-off of the Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC), the world’s first autonomous racing competition based in the United States. The company’s engineering team set the world autonomous speed record of 318 km/h (197.7 mph) at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida using a production Maserati MC20 with no human driver on board. Aidoptation’s first commercial product, called EdgeDrive, is a Level 4 fully autonomous driving platform built specifically for highway operation at speeds of 120 km/h and above (where speed limits allow). It provides consistent and safe autonomous driving operations when it is most beneficial, where human reaction time, vehicle stability, and low tire grip conditions can reach their limits, dramatically increasing the risk of an accident. EdgeDrive uses first-principles-based deterministic models to reliably handle safety-critical scenarios: emergency maneuvers, sudden obstacle avoidance, and high-speed hazard response. With no AI involved in decision-making, driving results are fully traceable and auditable, ensuring transparency for regulators and insurers. Adaptation will offer EdgeDrive as a separate, or integrated, proven safety module to automotive OEMs and robotaxi customers seeking to expand their ODD (Operational Design Domain) for Level 3 and Level 4 autonomous vehicles to highways.

The importance of real-world testing

Testing on public highways is a critical step in the development of safe and reliable autonomous driving systems. To prepare for and secure a permit, Aidoptation has spent a year conducting extensive real-world testing of its high-speed autonomous driving technology across a wide range of weather and driving conditions at multiple sites in Belgium, including Ford Lommel Proving Grounds, DronePort runway, Circuit of Spa-Francorchamps and Circuit Zolder. The permit to test on highways in Belgium enables Aidoptation to validate its autonomous driving technology, including EdgeDrive, in real-world traffic conditions, complementing the extensive ongoing testing at proving grounds and tracks. Testing will be conducted in a phased approach under strict operational and safety protocols agreed with the Belgian authorities, which includes a human safety driver supervising who is able to take control of the vehicle at any time while testing. The project is insured by Ethias, one of Belgium’s leading insurers, whose support underpins the safe and responsible conduct of testing on public roads.

“Being the first to test fully autonomous Level 4 technology on EU highways is a milestone moment for Aidoptation, the Belgian innovation ecosystem, and the broader autonomous driving industry. Autonomous driving has enormous potential to improve safety and mobility, but commercial adoption will depend on demonstrating safe performance in the most demanding highway scenarios. Testing on public highways will generate invaluable real-world data, validate our technology, and advance our mission of reducing fatalities and making highways safer for everyone.” – Paul Mitchell, CEO of Aidoptation

“ As a Belgian insurer and partner to thousands of public institutions, local authorities and emergency services, we see every day just how essential safety and mobility are to society. That is why we invest in companies such as Aidoptation. Its technology has the potential to make our roads safer and help prevent road casualties. At the same time, Aidoptation demonstrates how Belgium can develop new areas of economic strength in advanced mobility technology. In this way, we combine social impact with investment in the future of our country.” – Philippe Lallemand, CEO of Ethias

“Innovation on our roads must first and foremost contribute to greater safety and economic progress. With companies such as Aidoptation, Flanders not only possesses strong expertise and technological ingenuity, but we are also putting that knowledge into practice on the road. By enabling testing under real-world conditions, we are developing concrete solutions that can save lives while strengthening our position as a European leader in smart mobility.” –Matthias Diependaele, Minister-President of Flanders

"Autonomous driving is no longer science fiction. Around the world, we are reaching a tipping point, and Flanders should not merely follow; it should lead. We have the expertise, the companies, and the ambition to be at the forefront. The fact that Aidoptation can now conduct testing on the E313 and E314 motorways demonstrates that Flanders is a place where innovation does not remain confined to ideas, but finds its way into real-world application." –Annick De Ridder, Minister for Mobility of Flanders

About Aidoptation

Aidoptation BV is a Belgian autonomous vehicle software company, founded in 2025 as a commercial spin-off of the Indy Autonomous Challenge. Based at DronePort Sint-Truiden, the company develops EdgeDrive, an autonomous driving software platform designed to make high-speed highway driving safer. Aidoptation is backed by LRM, SFPIM, Ethias Ventures, and Belfius Bank.

www.aidoptation.com

The autonomy box kit contains the computing units and ECUs necessary to run the autonomous driving software and control the autonomous vehicle. In the unit are a power management safety and safety stage, the high level computer and actuators control ECU. Additionally, sensor collection and routing is done in the autonomy box.

The actuator in the picture is a specifically developed steer actuator featuring a direct drive motor and custom integration. The actuator is capable of providing the required steering torque to safely drive the car at the limit. The system allows to drive the car manually when disengaged with no external resistance.

Our car driving on the highway (in manual mode).

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine's Republican nominee for governor recently told a crowd of supporters that he would ask a top Department of Homeland Security official to send U.S. Marshals and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to polling places in the state for this fall's midterm elections, according to audio obtained by The Associated Press.

During an Aug. 20 event in Arundel, Bobby Charles told a group of supporters that he would ask Tom Homan, the White House border czar, to send federal agents to polling places in the weeks before Election Day. The audio was first reported by the Bangor Daily News.

“Here’s my secret,” Charles told members of a Maine Young Republicans chapter. “I have a friend named Tom Homan. Tom and I used to get on Fox all the time together. Tom’s an awesome guy.”

“I’m going to ask Tom, I’m going to actually — three or four weeks before the election, maybe three — I’m going to make an appeal for ICE and Marshals to be at our voting booths,” Charles said, according to the audio.

On Wednesday, he explained his comments by saying state and local authorities who manage elections should have an open line of communication with federal authorities if needed to “prevent violence at a voting place, in order to prevent intimidation at a voting place and in order to prevent illegality at a voting place.”

He said his point was that Maine authorities should do everything legally possible to prevent illegal voting in the state.

“Everybody who is legally entitled to vote should be free from any intimidation and should be able to vote,” he said in a statement released by his campaign. “Anybody who is not legally entitled to vote should not be voting.”

Charles' comments come as President Donald Trump continues to sow doubt about the security of elections in the U.S. elections and takes unprecedented measures to intervene in election administration. The Constitution gives states, and sometimes Congress, the authority to set election rules but grants no such power to the president.

A central part of his attacks is to claim widespread fraud through voting by noncitizens. But those claims are vastly overstated. Voting by noncitizens is exceptionally rare and is punishable as a felony, with deportation as one potential penalty.

Nevertheless, Trump has been pushing Congress to pass a bill that would require voters to show documentary proof of citizenship to vote in the upcoming midterms and signed an executive order directing the Postal Service to send mail ballots only to those on an approved list of verified voters.

When reached for comment on Wednesday, DHS did not address whether department officials had held or planned to hold conversations with political campaigns about election security. DHS officials have previously said they do not have plans to send ICE agents to polling places.

“Elections exist for the American people, not illegal aliens, to choose their leaders,” a Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement to the AP.

Democratic state officials have been concerned about the possibility of immigration agents showing up near polling places on Election Day or during early voting. Several states have taken actions this year to guard against it.

In February, a DHS official told a group of secretaries of state that “any suggestion that ICE will be present at any polling location is simply not true,” according to several secretaries who were part of the conversation. That followed congressional testimony from the heads of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, who both answered “No, sir” when asked if they are involved in any efforts to guard voting precincts.

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, said ICE agents are prohibited by law from being at polling places and that Maine residents can expect a free and secure election in November. Bellows ran for governor this year but lost in the Democratic primary.

“The political rhetoric coming from Mr. Charles is just politics, but it won’t change the laws or the Constitution,” Bellows said.

The Maine Democratic Party also criticized Charles’ comments and described his plan as likely illegal. The party also criticized the timing of the comments as the state is continuing to wrestle with the killing of Biddeford resident Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero by an ICE officer earlier this summer.

The comments expose Charles as a “MAGA extremist” who will do Trump’s bidding, said Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson.

“His plan to ask Trump’s border czar to send ICE agents to Maine polling places just weeks before Election Day is not only deeply alarming — it is likely illegal. This is a blatant attempt to intimidate voters and yet another reason Bobby Charles is too extreme for Maine,” Murphy-Anderson said.

Federal law prohibits the military and federal agencies from putting troops or armed officers near polling sites, according to the Brennan Center.

The White House has dismissed concerns that federal agents would interfere with elections and noted that there was no disruption to the election process in last year’s elections, when Democrats performed well.

During his March confirmation hearing, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin downplayed concerns about ICE agents being used to intimidate voters or interfere with election administration. But he maintained that agents had a right to conduct immigration enforcement activities at sites related to election administration.

“I don’t understand what the concern is about enforcement of immigration at polling places anyways, because honestly if you’re not a citizen you shouldn’t be voting anyways,” Mullin testified. “So technically, there shouldn’t be illegals at the polling spot.”

He continued: “The only reason why my officers would be there is if there was a specific threat for them to be there, not for intimidation.”

Charles is an attorney who served as U.S. assistant secretary of state under President George W. Bush. He won the Republican primary for governor in June and will face Democratic candidate Hannah Pingree, the former speaker of the Maine House of Representatives, in November. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, is term-limited.

Brown reported from Washington, D.C.

FILE - Maine Republican gubernatorial candidate Bobby Charles fields a question during a debate of Republican candidates for governor in Bangor, Maine, on March 24, 2026. (Rich Abrahamson/The Central Maine Morning Sentinel via AP, File)