Sajjad Khan heads up Mercedes-Benz's future technology development, grouped under the name CASE, short for connected, autonomous, shared and electric. He recently spoke to Automotive News Europe Correspondent Christiaan Hetzner about the challenges slowing the debut of self-driving cars.

You plan to test Level 4 cars together with Robert Bosch in San Jose, California, by year-end. When will we see tests like this in Germany?

We are already testing our cars with safety drivers on public roads in Stuttgart, with permission from the local authorities. What is unique about San Jose is it's a pilot project with special parameters. We plan to do the same in Germany, but you will have to wait a little bit. It will be in the foreseeable future.

How big of an issue is the lack of regulatory support?

Once we have the technology ready and available for fully autonomous vehicles that require no human drivers, we believe policymakers will work together hand in hand with us to bring them to market. The first task is to develop it.