Finland clears Bliq.ai for driverless vehicle operations
Tech.eu Cate Lawrence
Finland just gave Bliq.ai the green light to run driverless cars on public roads. A safety driver stays onboard for now, but Helsinki testing kicks off soon — even through winter.
Based on reporting by Tech.eu, Cate Lawrence — read the original for the full story.
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Finland has approved Bliq.ai's driverless system for public road operations, effective immediately, making it one of the more notable regulatory nods for autonomous vehicles in the Nordic region so far this year. The approval builds on Finland's earlier recognition of Bliq's existing technology, and it clears the path for the company to begin testing in and around Helsinki shortly.
Don't expect empty driver's seats just yet. The first phase will run with a safety driver onboard, a deliberate step that lets Bliq validate how its system performs under Finnish conditions before pulling back further. That includes prepping for the country's first winter operations, which is no small thing given how brutal Nordic winters can be for sensors, road grip, and general vehicle behavior.
Bliq's approach differs from companies building autonomous vehicles from scratch. Instead, it retrofits existing software-defined vehicles with a sensor and compute stack designed for fast integration, converting them into driverless cars rather than manufacturing new ones. The current generation pairs an AI-based Level 2 driving system with remote human supervision, a combination meant to speed up deployment while still keeping a safety net in place.
Julian Glaab, Bliq's CEO and co-founder, framed the Finland approval as a step toward making driverless mobility ordinary rather than novel, and said the country offers a genuinely tough testing ground for the system. Leading the on-the-ground work will be Erik Safonov, who already runs Bliq's operations across the Baltics from Tallinn and will now add Helsinki to that portfolio. Safonov described the move from Tallinn to Helsinki as a natural expansion, emphasizing a cautious, learn-as-you-go approach to establishing the company in Finland.
The timing puts Bliq in the middle of a broader push for autonomous vehicles across Europe. In April, Verne launched what it called Europe's first commercial robotaxi service in Zagreb, Croatia, letting the public book and pay for rides powered by Pony.ai technology through its app. Bliq's Finland approval isn't quite that — safety drivers are still in the car — but it adds another data point to a continent that's clearly testing the waters on driverless mobility rather than committing all at once.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
A safety driver in the seat and winter testing ahead isn't a driverless revolution, it's a careful, sensible first step, and that's exactly the point. Retrofitting existing vehicles instead of building bespoke robocars is the pragmatic play here, and pragmatic is underrated in an industry that loves to overpromise. Europe's autonomous vehicle scene is clearly moving, just not in one dramatic leap — Zagreb gets robotaxis, Helsinki gets supervised test runs, and both matter more than the headlines suggest.
Read more about this at: Tech.eu
