Stellantis, the automaker behind Jeep, Ram, Chrysler, and Dodge, announced in May 2026 a commercial partnership with U.K.-based self-driving startup Wayve to bring hands-free driving technology to its vehicles by 2028. The deal was unveiled during Stellantis’ investor day at its North American headquarters in Michigan.
Under the agreement, Wayve will supply Stellantis with its AI-based assisted driving software at scale, targeting the North American market first. The companies did not disclose the financial terms of the contract or specify which Stellantis vehicles will receive the technology.
Wayve CEO Alex Kendall described the partnership as a strong fit given Stellantis’ scale and product diversity. “Our AI is so adaptable; we can generalize to the variety of products that they offer,” Kendall told TechCrunch, noting the range of vehicle sizes, shapes, and geographies involved.
Stellantis will initially use Wayve’s hands-off, eyes-on assisted driving system — comparable in function to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) product. A prototype of the system was developed for Stellantis in two months, with engineers getting the vehicle driving within a couple of weeks, according to Kendall.
Wayve’s technology is hardware-agnostic: it does not rely on specific sensors, chips, or high-definition maps, and can run on whatever computing hardware an automaker already uses. The system uses an end-to-end neural network trained on data captured from a vehicle’s existing sensors.
The Stellantis deal is Wayve’s second automaker partnership and follows a $1.2 billion Series D funding round that included strategic investors Nissan and Stellantis, along with returning backers Microsoft, Nvidia, and Uber.
Stellantis separately announced plans to launch 11 new vehicles in North America by 2030 as part of a $70 billion turnaround plan, with seven priced under $40,000 and two under $30,000. Whether Wayve’s technology will appear in those lower-cost models has not been confirmed.
Source: TechCrunch