Stellantis partners with Pony.ai to accelerate the development and deployment of robotaxis in Europe

Stellantis is today announcing a partnership with Pony.ai to jointly develop and test SAE Level 4 autonomous vehicles. In case you don't know, Level 4 means hands-off, eyes-off autonomy - 'the dream', practically, the one that's always been 'right around the corner' if you listen to people with financial incentives to say that.

The Stellantis and Pony.ai partnership will interestingly focus on EV medium size vans first, as they are billed to be ideal for robotaxi applications. The Peugeot e-Traveller will be what these test vehicles are based on. Stellantis is Europe's leading manufacturer of light commercial vehicles. Pony.ai will deliver its "advanced autonomous driving software" and Stellantis brings its medium-size van platform to the table.

Real world testing will begin in Luxembourg "in the coming months", followed by "a gradual rollout across European cities" next year. Nothing more specific than that, and this could be read as the rollout of testing being expanded, even though the press release definitely wants you to imply it means the rollout of functioning robotaxis. Even that would be irrelevant without a list of cities, of course, but remember - it's just around the corner As always.