Stellantis targets 2028 autonomous pilot across five Paris municipalities

Stellantis plans to put Level 4 autonomous vehicles on public roads in the Paris region from 2028, with a commercial ride service covering roughly 30 municipalities by 2030. The OEM announced two linked initiatives: a European autonomous-vehicle alliance with the British software developer Wayve, the US chip and computing company NVIDIA, and the French government; and a Paris-area pilot submitted to the EU Commission's ADACities programme.

Who builds what in the alliance?

The division of labour is explicit. Stellantis supplies the vehicle architecture rated for Level 4 autonomy (the level at which the system handles all driving tasks within defined conditions, with no human fallback) and manufactures the vehicles. Wayve develops the artificial intelligence that controls the car. NVIDIA provides sensors and computing power through its Hyperion platform and the Halos operating system.

The declared goal is a complete European supply chain, from the microchip to the fully assembled self-driving vehicle. Stellantis said trade unions and local authorities are involved, with the technology to be brought to market maturity in a manner the company described as safe, responsible and compliant with data-privacy rules. That framing matters for a production decision: it is an announced intention, not yet a confirmed plant allocation or capacity figure.

What does the Paris pilot involve?

The practical testbed is the "Greater Paris Autonomous Driving Living Lab", filed with the EU Commission's ADACities initiative. Three partners would run it: Métropole du Grand Paris, Stellantis and the mobility service operator Bolt. The Chinese-American developer Pony.ai appears as a potential software supplier, which remains a claim to verify against a signed contract.

Initial tests are scheduled for 2028 across up to five municipalities in the north-western Paris region. The programme will first evaluate four things:

• operational performance and safety;
• integration with public transport;
• economic, social and environmental impacts of autonomous mobility services.

The service would then expand to around 30 municipalities by 2030, when commercial operation is meant to begin. The stated purpose is to close gaps in the Paris transport network: the vehicles would act as feeders covering the "first and last mile", improving access to commercial areas and absorbing congestion around major events.

Why France?

The French market for ride-hailing and taxi dispatch is among the largest in Europe, which gives an autonomous fleet a real addressable base. The government legislated early on Level 4 automated driving, and that legal certainty for public-road testing is what makes the country workable as a development hub. Money follows the same logic: at the 2025 AI Summit in Paris, investment commitments totalling €109 billion were announced.

For Stellantis, the pairing of permissive regulation and AI capital compares with the more fragmented approval processes autonomous programmes face elsewhere in Europe.

What to watch next

Three checkpoints will show whether the programme is real: the EU Commission's decision on the ADACities submission, the first 2028 test deployments in the five pilot municipalities, and any announcement naming the Stellantis plant that would build the Level 4 vehicles. Watch also for Pony.ai's role being confirmed or dropped.