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Bolt and Lucid Announce Plan to Deploy 25,000 Autonomous Vehicles in Europe
Estonian car-sharing platform Bolt and U.S. electric vehicle manufacturer Lucid plan to deploy at least 25,000 fully autonomous vehicles across Europe, the companies announced on Thursday. The partnership marks a significant effort to build out autonomous ride-hailing infrastructure in a region that has moved more cautiously on the technology than the U.S. and China.
Partnership Details
Under the terms of the agreement, Bolt is set to own and operate the fleet of self-driving vehicles on its platform. The companies did not disclose the financial details of the investment or a specific timeline for reaching the 25,000-vehicle target.
Looking further ahead, Bolt stated a long-term ambition to host 100,000 autonomous vehicles on its platform by 2035. The vehicles for the partnership will be manufactured at Lucid’s new facility in Saudi Arabia, which is scheduled to begin operations early next year. The autonomous driving platform is expected to utilize Nvidia’s Hyperion system.
AdStrategic Rationale
Bolt CEO Markus Villig told Reuters the move is part of a broader strategy to develop autonomous driving capabilities within Europe to avoid long-term reliance on technology imported from competing markets. He noted that while Europe "absolutely has the potential" to develop the necessary technology, the primary obstacle is the region's stricter safety regulations.
"Long term, we need to build this technology within the EU for EU requirements under the local standards," Villig said, according to Reuters. He added that he believes over time there will be a market for "millions of robotaxis around Europe."
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