The Best of Four Worlds
Is the fully autonomous car nothing but a dream from a few years ago? Not according to Stellantis. It is entering into a collaboration with three major parties with the goal of bringing the fully autonomous robotaxi one step closer.
Stellantis has found partners in Uber, Nvidia and the Taiwanese Foxconn for a new major project. The four large companies will work together on the development of vehicles that can drive autonomously at level four. For those who have forgotten: in a car that can do this, no driver needs to be present to monitor things. The vehicles to be developed must be deployed as a robotaxi service. According to Stellantis, you will soon order an Uber and then get into a taxi without a driver.
The four companies will each have a substantial task. Stellantis says it will design, develop and produce suitable taxi vehicles based on its current commercial vehicles. It will also develop vehicles on the STLA Small platform that will play a role in the robotaxi world. These vehicles will each receive Nvidia Drive AV software from Nvidia. Foxconn has been brought in to work with Stellantis to ensure that the vehicles and software merge well into something usable. Uber will – as you might expect – provide the taxi service and will thus offer the autonomous Stellantis vehicles with Nvidia software.
The plans are already very concrete. Uber intends to test with as many as 5,000 autonomous vehicles in ‘various cities’ in the United States. The first vehicles are to be built as early as 2028. Subsequently, the companies want to scale up rapidly. Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa can already see it clearly. “Autonomous mobility opens the door to new, affordable transportation options for customers. We have developed AV-ready platforms to meet the growing demand. By collaborating with market leaders in AI, electronics and mobility services, we aim for a scalable solution that offers smarter, safer and more efficient mobility for everyone,” said the CEO.