Self-driving vehicle test track opens in Hungary – Photos

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Monday opened a 265 hectar test track for self-driving vehicles near Zalaegerszeg, in southwest Hungary, which the government has funded with a 45 billion forint (EUR 137.9m) grant.

In his opening speech, Orbán said that in the wake of a series on European crises preserving the country’s identity, protecting its security and boosting competitiveness are priorities. “These things are, in Hungarian minds, interconnected: protecting our identity and borders is of a piece with the European way of life, the European economic model and the protection of the world’s largest single market,” Orbán said.

Regarding the test track, Orbán said “the future has started, it is called digital economy”. The Zalaegerszeg investment is “one of the first tickets Hungary has bought into that future,” he said.

Orbán said he expected

the Zalaegerszeg centre to grow into a regional hub “with maybe a European radius”.

It is a national interest that the 620 car manufacturing companies active in Hungary think of the country not simply as a production site but as a development hub, an opportunity to gain a competitive edge, he said. The 10,000 engineers working in development and a further 10,000 in telecommunications make the country “much more than just a production plant”, he said.

Budapest at the forefront of AI: self-driving cars in the focus at Continental