Wayve, Stellantis and Nvidia team up with France on self-driving cars

Wayve, Stellantis and Nvidia announced a collaboration with the French government to deploy self-driving vehicles in France and across the EU. Stellantis supplies L4-ready platforms, Wayve its AI Driver and Nvidia its Hyperion system. Uber is also involved, a French trade paper reported. No launch date was given.

Wayve, Stellantis and Nvidia will work with the French government to bring self-driving cars to France and speed up their rollout across the EU, the companies said on Friday. They made the announcement at the Assises du Véhicule Autonome, a conference on self-driving vehicles in Paris.

Stellantis will supply cars built to be ready for full self-driving. London-based Wayve will provide its AI Driver software, which will run on Nvidia’s Hyperion computer and sensor system.

Uber is also part of the plan and will bring its ride-hailing network, Journal de l’Automobile reported, citing Stellantis. Uber and Wayve already run robotaxi rides in London, launched in September with a safety driver in every car.

The companies did not give a launch date, a fleet size or the cities where the cars will run. Local transport partners will talk to unions, city authorities and others before any rollout, they said.

France’s transport minister, Philippe Tabarot, said the country will change its rules to speed up self-driving cars. It will still keep strict safety and data sovereignty requirements, he said. At EU level, the only approval route for fully self-driving cars is capped at 1,500 vehicles a year.

Wayve and Stellantis already work together. This month in Turin, they showed a Fiat 500e and a Maserati Grecale driving hands-free with Wayve’s software, with a first launch planned for 2028 in North America.

Europe has fallen behind the US and China on robotaxis. Uber’s first European self-driving rides started in Zagreb in August, with a safety driver behind the wheel.

Chinese firms are moving fastest. Pony.ai’s software runs Europe’s first fully driverless rides, also in Zagreb, and Pony.ai and Uber plan to put more than 2,000 robotaxis on European roads.