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Autonomous vehicle: assisted driving and driverless shuttles, tailor-made mobility

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When it comes to autonomous vehicles, we are choosing a targeted path: individual cars equipped with the best driver assistance technologies on one side, and autonomous shuttles on the other. How does this strategy open up new perspectives for public transport and rethink the driving experience? Innovations, partnerships and ambitions for tomorrow: dive into the unique vision of autonomous mobility, designed to be accessible and transform our travel.

By Renault Group

Assisted driving: a pragmatic approach towards autonomy

There are six levels of autonomous driving, which depend on the extent to which the automation system requires the driver’s input. They range from 0 (no automation) to 5 (no input). In the case of passenger cars, Renault Group has chosen to concentrate its efforts on Level 2 automation, notably with Active Driver Assist.

This system, which is available on most Renault range vehicles, includes contextual adaptive cruise control, i.e. Adaptive Cruise Control plus Lane Keeping Assist and geolocation data interfacing with mapping data. The vehicle, as a result, adapts predictively to the road’s configuration and speed limit, based on combined data from its front camera and maps.

The next level – where the driver could release the steering wheel and do something else while the car drives itself – is not a priority in the near term.

Over the coming years, the recipe will remain the same: Renault will continue to build vehicles with market-leading driver assistance systems to make mobility ever safer and more enjoyable. Their electric and electronic architecture will remain scalable, so the Group will be able to add autonomous driving features if technological breakthroughs enable them and customer expectations warrant them.

Autonomous driving: the electric minibus at the heart of public transport

We are convinced that self-driving public transport vehicles make sense. In Europe alone, over 400 large cities will gradually become low-emission zones – but people in them will still need to move around.

Fully autonomous electric minibuses are a sustainable means of transport, and over time will become a cost-efficient alternative, with low CO2 emissions per kilometre and per passenger, alongside existing options (trains, trams and buses). They are also more flexible and can operate safely 24/7 with a remote supervision system operating the entire fleet. The fact that they will not need a driver in the vehicle will offset the additional robotisation and automation costs.

“Because the shuttles’ route is well defined and fully mapped; because they travel at a lower speed, between 30 and 70 km/h; and because they can be supervised remotely, the technical stakes for their traveling « freely » on open roads remain high, but they are much lower than for a private vehicle”

Patrick Vergelas

Head of Automotive Mobility Projects, Renault Group.

Since 2017, we have been conducting several experiments, like The Rouen Normandy Autonomous Lab and Paris-Saclay Autonomous Lab programmes, to define the best answer to communities’ requirements.

Alliance Ventures (a corporate venture capital fund operated by the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance) invested in WeRide, a one-year-old startup at the time, in 2018. WeRide has since grown into a worldwide standard-setter for Level-4 autonomy – meaning the system can manage driving situations by itself, without a driver in the vehicle, but with someone supervising it remotely.
WeRide today, it is more than 700 WeRide autonomous vehicles in service (including 300 minibuses) have driven over 28 million km in Asia, the Middle East, the United States and beyond.

Together, we regularly initiate new experiments and service pilots to demonstrate both the maturity of the technologies proposed and the role that autonomous public transport vehicles can play at a time when authorities must make structuring choices for the future of mobility.

In France, during the Roland-Garros 2024 tennis tournament, an experiment on open roads allowed 700 people to be transported in the heart of traffic, covering 1,000 kilometers.

From March 10 to 14 2025, two autonomous electric miniBuses will transport the public in the heart of the Ramblas in Barcelona.

A similar experiment will take place in Valencia from March 10 to April 19 2025, in order to prepare the launch of a commercial service from July 2025 between the Valence train station and the Rovaltain business park.

Navette autonome

Building on these experiments, we plan to offer a platform of robotic electric minibuses by 2030, capable of integrating automation solutions from specialist partners such as WeRide.

WeRide, a world leader in autonomous solutions

With more than 1,200 autonomous vehicles in service (including 300 miniBuses), which have already traveled more than 40 million kilometers in Asia, the Middle East and North America, WeRide is recognized as one of the world pioneers in open-road automation solutions. Renault Group is working with WeRide to develop Level 4 automated public transport services in Europe, capable of managing driving alone, in a defined operational domain, with remote supervision and without an operator on board.

3 questions for Patrick Vergelas, Automobile Mobility Projects Manager, Renault Group.

Level-3 autonomy (hands off the wheel, eyes on the road), still has to deal with three major issues:

  • legislation isn’t ready everywhere and does not cover all driving conditions;
  • questions about whether the driver or carmaker is responsible if the car causes an accident or breaks a rule haven’t been settled yet;
  • the technological complexity still puts the cost of these autonomous cars beyond reach for most people.

Yes, the technologies are safe. The minibuses we are trying out are Level-4. They need to be able to drive on different types of roads – separate, semi-open and open – without a driver in them. To do that, they use cameras, radar, lidar and other technologies to constantly and instantly assess the vehicle’s surroundings (other vehicles, pedestrians, etc.) much more accurately than the human eye, to process information, measure distances, speeds and so forth.

The rule for safety is GAME (Globalement Au Moins Equivalent, “overall at least equivalent”). In other words, the drive needs to be at least as safe as with an experienced driver at the wheel. This is why the minibuses will follow the same principles as transport systems such as metros, which use highly redundant architectures and sensors.

We are not yet at the point where we can start setting specific targets. But we definitely plan to be a prominent player in this segment, starting in Europe. The market is promising: it is estimated at several thousand vehicles by 2035.

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