Autos giant Peugeot is trialing driverless tech — with a twist — for Amazon-style deliveries

PARIS, France— Peugeot told CNBC this week that it is collaborating with Vay, a German mobility startup, to incorporate “teledriving” technology — an alternative to self-driving cars — into its vehicles.

The agreement would allow the two businesses to evaluate the application of Vay’s teledriving technology on “last-mile delivery” vans and smaller logistics vehicles, with an emphasis on business-to-business customers.

The plan is to employ remote-controlled automobiles to replicate the delivery trip from an order fulfillment center to homes or businesses, similar to Amazon’s existing approach.

The first exploratory test drives of Vay’s technology with Peugeot automobiles occurred last year, with the Pegueot E-308 electric car.

The cooperation has been in the works for 18 months, according to Justin Spratt, Vay’s chief business officer, who told CNBC via email that it chose Peugeot as its first OEM partner for integrating its teledriving technology owing to its “innovative standing and wider customer demographic.”

Spratt stated that its partnership with Peugeot will “showcase how delivery operations can be made more efficient — as vehicles can be delivered on demand, redistributed and taken to cleaning and charging — in a more cost-effective way.”

What is teledriving?
“Teledriven” vehicles resemble large remote-controlled cars, but they can accommodate a human inside.

Unlike self-driving cars, which can drive themselves without human intervention, teledriven automobiles are driven remotely by human operators via a live broadcast of the surrounding environment.

Teledrivers must complete several weeks of intensive training and certification before they may operate one of Vay’s teledrive stations.

Vay claims that its technology performs particularly effectively on short-distance excursions, making it suited for last-mile delivery as well as logistical facilities. Last-mile delivery refers to the final leg of an order’s travel to your door.

Stellantis, founded in the Netherlands, owns Peugeot, a French automotive brand.

Stellantis was founded in 2021 through the merging of Fiat Chrysler and PSA Groupe, and its portfolio of brands includes Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Citroen, and Maserati.

Vay is demonstrating its teledriving technology with Peugeot this week at the Viva Technology industry trade event in Paris.

“We believe it can drive large cost savings for all logistics companies, in particular ecommerce delivery,” Spratt stated to CNBC. “By decoupling drivers from the commercial vehicles at the distribution centres, it can reduce operational costs significantly.”

He also mentioned that Vay is looking into using teledriving technology to handle last-mile delivery with on-vehicle lockers that are tied to unique customer QR codes for pickup.

Earlier this year, Vay announced the introduction of a commercial teledriving service in Las Vegas, Nevada, allowing individuals to order automobiles to their location and drive themselves to their desired destination.

When a user completes their excursion, Vay’s teledriver can take over remotely and park or drive the car back to base.

Vay has already done experiments on public roads in Europe and the United States with remote drivers and no one behind the wheel. It is currently seeking to obtain complete regulatory approval for the technology on both sides of the Atlantic.

Vay was founded in 2018 by tech entrepreneur Thomas von der Ohe and has raised over $110 million in funding from investors such as Kinnevik, Coatue, Eurazeo, Atomico, La Famiglia, and Creandum.

Von der Ohe was previously a technical program manager at Zoox, a self-driving car startup that Amazon acquired for an unknown sum in 2020.

Notably, Vay claims that their technology is developed in such a way that it can someday allow self-driving functionality while collecting valuable data about the physical surroundings. The business claims it has no plans to launch an autonomous driving solution anytime soon, but sees teledriving as more of a “bridge” between manual and self-driving automobiles.