Stellantis joins forces with Bolt and Pony.ai to launch self-driving taxis in Luxembourg

Ride-hailing service Bolt, technology company Pony.ai, and automotive giant Stellantis announced a new joint project. The three companies are launching an automated vehicle testing program on public roads, with all the testing taking place in Luxembourg, known for its welcoming attitude toward new transport tech.

The project focuses on advanced automated driving systems put through their paces in real traffic conditions. Stellantis provides a specialized midsize van that uses the company's proprietary L4-Ready Platform. Pony.ai installs its seventh-generation autonomous driving technology into this van. This Gen-7 system allows the vehicle to achieve Level 4 autonomy, which means the vehicle can completely drive itself without human intervention inside geo-fenced areas. The technology seamlessly integrates software and hardware to read road signs, detect pedestrians, and navigate complex intersections.

The test vehicle combines the strengths of all three participating companies. In the official image released today, we can see how the manufacturers modified the standard van with an array of autonomous sensors and cameras mounted on the roof rack. The vehicle body sports prominent green and white branding, with the logos of both Bolt and Pony.ai alongside the Stellantis markings.

The entire program is a real-world city laboratory with a strict timeline. The testing phase will start in the quiet town of Bissen, and over a twelve-month period, the operators will slowly expand the area into the much busier streets of Luxembourg City. This slow expansion helps the developers validate the safety and performance of the vehicle's software before exposing it to a dense urban environment.

The operational scale of the project will grow over the year. The program starts small with a tiny fleet of only five automated vans. As the software proves its reliability in local traffic, the companies plan to add more vehicles to the streets. The final phase of the pilot will include up to 30 autonomous vans driving simultaneously. This gradual scale-up allows engineers to test fleet operations, vehicle deployment strategies, and the overall stability of the backend network.

The project is an important milestone for Bolt, as it is the company's very first autonomous mobility pilot program in Europe. Bolt is already a giant in the shared transit market, with operations in over 50 countries and 850 cities worldwide. The platform serves more than 200 million customers and connects more than 4.5 million drivers to daily work. By exploring automated technology, Bolt wants to accelerate the global transition from private car ownership to shared electric cars and highly efficient fleet EVs.

Pony.ai brings deep technical experience to the European partnership. Founded in 2016, the company focuses entirely on the large-scale commercialization of driverless transit. Its core product is a vehicle-agnostic system called Virtual Driver. This platform combines proprietary software, specialized sensors, and remote fleet services. Pony.ai operates testing and commercial programs across China, East Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, gathering data from millions of driven kilometers to improve passenger safety.

Stellantis uses this pilot program to showcase its expanding partner ecosystem and advance its global automated mobility strategy. As one of the largest automakers in the world, Stellantis controls a broad portfolio of historic and modern car brands - DS Automobiles, Peugeot, Citroën, Fiat, Opel, Vauxhall, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Lancia, and Abarth. The group also manages American brands like Jeep, Ram, Dodge, and Chrysler, alongside mobility services like Free2move and Leasys.

The launch of the testing program coincides with political shifts across the continent. Transport ministers from 17 European Union countries met in Luxembourg to sign a joint proposal designed to create a unified European "testbed" for automated transit. Europe lags far behind China and the United States in deploying operational robotaxis, but European politicians finally realized that making companies ask for separate regulatory permits in every single country slows down innovation, so they are trying to harmonize the rules.

Despite the driverless goals, the vans will not be entirely empty yet. European strict regulations require a human safety driver to sit inside every vehicle during the initial trial phase. The safety driver sits in the front seat to monitor the system, but does not touch the steering wheel or pedals unless an emergency happens. The three companies hope that the data collected during this trial will convince regulators that the software is completely ready to operate without any human backup.

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