Bolt, Stellantis plan autonomous driving experiment in Greater Paris from 2028

Oct 23 (Reuters) - Estonian ride-hailing firm Bolt and the Greater Paris region are planning to launch an autonomous driving programme in the French capital in 2028, using vehicles from Franco-Italian Stellantis, they said in a joint statement on Friday.

The pilot programme will assess gaps in existing transport services, with an aim to launch commercial operations in Greater Paris, which includes the city's surrounding municipalities, by 2030, the three parties to the agreement said.

• Initial deployments are planned across municipalities in the north-west of the metropolitan area

• "This experiment will also help inform public decision-making and define the conditions for potential wider deployment," said Patrick Ollier, president of the Metropolis of Greater Paris

• Chinese self-driving tech firm Pony.ai is a potential provider of the autonomous driving technology

• Bolt also plans to test autonomous vehicles on the streets of Madrid during 2027, it said on Wednesday

(Reporting by Danny Callaghan in Gdansk, editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)