PARIS: Ride-hailing platform Bolt, alongside Chinese company Pony.ai and carmaker Stellantis began testing self-driving taxis in Luxembourg on Monday, the companies said.
The trial, which will be conducted over a year, initially involves five vehicles in the town of Bissen and will be gradually expanded to 30 vehicles and include Luxembourg City to ensure the "robotaxis" can handle a crowded urban driving environment, Bolt told AFP.
The trial is one of several planned this year in Europe, which has lagged behind China and the United States in putting self-driving taxis on the roads.
Bolt said the aim of the trial was to test the vehicles in a "living laboratory".
So-called safety drivers will be on board ready to intervene if necessary, as was the case in the early days of testing in China and the United States.
The launch of the trial came as transport ministers from 17 EU nations meeting in Luxembourg signed a proposal to create a common European "testbed", a simplified testing approach that will let companies avoid having to obtain approval on a country-by-country basis.
"It's important to think cross border, to think European, also for autonomous driving," said Luxembourg's minister for mobility, Yuriko Backes.
Wayve, a British startup specialised in artificial intelligence for self-driving vehicles, said Monday it was ready to launch its robotaxi service with Uber in London as early as this summer.
The rollout would make Wayve the first company to launch a commercial autonomous taxi service in Britain, ahead of rivals Waymo, owned by Google-parent Alphabet, and China's Baidu. – AFP
