Stellantis announced at its Investor Day event that it will partner with UK autonomous driving startup Wayve to introduce hands-free driver assistance features in North American market vehicles starting in 2028. Neither party disclosed the contract value or specified the initial brands and models to be equipped with the technology.
Launch in North America first in 2028.
Wayve CEO Alex Kendall said this is not a pilot project, but a commercial contract for scalable production. Stellantis, which owns brands such as Jeep, Ram, Chrysler, and Dodge, will be the first market where both parties move forward together.
On the same day, Stellantis also announced its North American business restructuring plan, stating that it will launch 11 new vehicles by 2030 to support its $70 billion business revitalization initiative. Of these, seven will be priced below $40,000, and two will be priced below $30,000.
Primarily optimized for existing hardware
It is currently unclear whether Wayve’s system will be deployed in these lower-priced vehicle models, but this has drawn attention to whether its solution can be scaled to cost-sensitive mass-production vehicles.
One of Wayve’s key advantages is that its autonomous driving system does not rely on specific sensors, dedicated chips, or high-definition maps. The company states that its software can directly use data collected by the vehicle’s existing sensors and perform driving decisions and training through an end-to-end neural network.
According to this approach, automakers do not need to build an entirely new hardware system for each vehicle model or completely replace their existing computing platforms. This compatibility-focused solution is more appealing to manufacturers seeking to control costs.
The initial version available is the assisted driving variant.
Wayve currently offers two types of products to automakers: one is a driver-assistance system that allows hands-free driving while requiring the driver to remain attentive; the other is an autonomous driving system designed for robotaxis or future passenger vehicles.
Stellantis adopted the first approach. Kendall said the two parties completed the prototype development in just two months, and the engineering team had vehicles equipped with the system on the road within weeks.
This is also Wayve’s second partnership with an automaker. Shortly before this collaboration was announced, the company completed a $1.2 billion Series D funding round, with investors including Nissan, Stellantis, as well as existing shareholders and strategic investors such as Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Uber.
From a timing perspective, Wayve is shifting from technology demonstrations to mass-production partnerships. For Stellantis, this collaboration also means filling a gap in its AI-assisted driving capabilities in the North American market to compete with ongoing software-driven advances from competitors like Tesla.