Bolt, the European ride-hailing company, has announced the launch of a year-long trial of autonomous robotaxis in Luxembourg. The pilot programme, which began on Monday, will initially see five self-driving vehicles operating in the town of Bissen. Over time, the project will expand to the more densely populated streets of Luxembourg City, ultimately deploying up to thirty robotaxis, according to the company.
Bolt describes the initiative as its first autonomous mobility pilot in Europe. The main objective is to assess how these vehicles perform in real-life urban conditions, what the company terms a 'living laboratory', rather than limiting trials to closed test tracks. The trial is also meant to evaluate how well the technology adapts to European traffic environments and regulatory standards.
The goal by the end of the twelve-month pilot is to achieve a level of readiness enabling fully driverless operation. However, as required by European regulations, a safety driver will remain on board each vehicle throughout the pilot phase. This person will not interact with the steering wheel or controls, but will monitor the system and be ready to intervene in case of malfunction.
The focus of the project will be on validating the safety, performance, and regulatory compliance of Stellantis-brand vans equipped with autonomous driving technologies developed by Pony.ai. These vehicles are based on Stellantis’s L4-Ready platform, supporting high-level automation.
The launch of Bolt's pilot coincided with the signing of a joint declaration in Luxembourg by 17 European transport ministers. The declaration proposes the creation of 'test zones' for autonomous driving experiments across Europe, as noted by French Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot.
Luxembourg’s Minister for Mobility, Yuriko Backes, emphasised the importance of a cross-border and European approach when developing autonomous driving technologies. Her German counterpart highlighted the need for harmonised regulations at the European level to facilitate the rollout of such innovations.
Bolt, founded in 2013, says it plans to announce further autonomous mobility experiments elsewhere in Europe in 2026.
Meanwhile, Pony.ai is conducting parallel trials with the US-based ride-hailing platform Uber in Europe, aiming to help the continent close the gap with the United States and China in the field of autonomous driving.
Recent initiatives include the launch of robotaxi trials in Zagreb, Croatia, on 8 April. In this project, Pony.ai is partnering with Uber and Croatian start-up Verne, backed by carmaker Rimac, to put a fleet of around ten robotaxis on the road. In Madrid, China's Weride has announced a test with Uber, while Uber is also planning to deploy robotaxis in Munich using technology from Chinese developer Momenta.
