Which will be the first European destination to fully enter the era of autonomous mobility? As Uber advances its pieces in Germany and in Spain, its competitor Bolt is now targeting Luxembourg. With this in mind, the shared mobility specialist has found some top-tier co-pilots: Pony.ai and Stellantis.
The three partners officially launched a pilot autonomous mobility programme in Luxembourg on 9 June. The objective is to experiment with connected and automated vehicles under real urban conditions, in contact with the public, making the Grand Duchy a "living laboratory".
This autonomous mobility programme – a first for Bolt – will draw, in particular, on Stellantis's expertise, with a mid-size van based on the automotive giant's L4-Ready Platform.
At the end of this testing phase, the duration of which has not been specified, the partners aim to achieve full autonomous driving capability, without a driver. They are particularly focusing on the regulatory specificities of Luxembourg, as evidenced by James Peng, Founder and CEO of Pony.ai: « Luxembourg's forward-thinking regulatory environment provides a strong foundation for testing autonomous mobility in Europe. Alongside Bolt and Stellantis, we are eager to validate Pony.ai's technology under local traffic conditions and support the responsible development of autonomous mobility throughout the region. ".
Luxembourg should not remain an isolated initiative for long, as foreseen by Markus Villig, Founder and CEO of Bolt: " Autonomous mobility technology is already transforming transport across the globe. As the only independently European-origin ride-hailing platform competing on a global scale, we want to be at the forefront of deploying this game-changing technology in Europe. We welcome Luxembourg’s forward-thinking approach to testing this technology, and are excited to work closely together with our European partner Stellantis and the global software leader Pony.ai to launch further pilots in the future. ".
