May 21 (Reuters) - Stellantis ( STLA ) and British

autonomous driving startup Wayve said on Thursday they had

formed a strategic partnership to bring Wayve's artificial

intelligence driving software into the carmaker's STLA AutoDrive

platform for future hands-free assisted driving.

The companies said in a joint statement on the sidelines of

Stellantis' ( STLA ) Investor Day that the first vehicle integration was

targeted for North America in 2028.

The system would aim for supervised "Level 2++" driving,

meaning the car can handle more driving tasks but the driver

must still watch the road and remain ready to take control, on

highways and in cities.

* Level 2++ requires hands-free supervised driving, a step

below fully autonomous operation, requiring the driver to remain

available to take control

* Franco-Italian-American carmaker's strategy is to deliver

advanced driver-assistance systems to customers

* Wayve's end-to-end AI approach is designed to generalize

across geographies and vehicle types, supporting deployment

across multiple markets over time

* London-based startup set to integrate its AI Driver into a

Stellantis ( STLA ) vehicle prototype "in less than two months," CEO of

Wayve Alex Kendall said

* Wayve, founded in 2017, develops AI driving software for

automakers and fleet operators without relying on

high-definition maps

* British startup is implementing assisted driving system

with Nissan ( NSANF ) targeting a launch in Japan by 2027

* Wayve, backed by SoftBank and Nvidia ( NVDA ), is also developing

robotaxis with Nissan ( NSANF ) and Uber ( UBER ), targeting a Tokyo pilot

by late 2026