PARIS, France — French car giant Peugeot told CNBC this week that it’s partnering with Vay, a German mobility startup, to integrate so-called “teledriving” tech — an alternative to autonomous cars — into its vehicles. 

The deal will see the two companies assess the use of Vay’s teledriving tech on “last-mile delivery” vans and smaller logistics vehicles, with a focus on business-to-business (B2B) customers. 

The idea is to recreate the journey a delivery vehicle typically takes from an order fulfillment center to households or businesses, similar to the widely-known model already offered by Amazon — only this time with remote-controlled cars.

The first pilot test drives of Vay’s technology with Peugeot vehicles are expected to take place this year. Peugeot is looking to include the tech in its E-3008 electric SUVs and some electric vans.

The partnership has been 18 months in the making, Justin Spratt, Vay’s chief business officer, told CNBC via emailed comments, adding that it selected Peugeot as its first OEM partner for integration of its teledriving tech due to its “innovative standing and wider customer demographic.”

Spratt said its deal 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.”

Peugeot is a French brand of automobiles owned by Netherlands-based firm Stellantis. 

Stellantis, whose portfolio of brands also includes Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Citroen and Maserati, was formed from a merger of Fiat Chrysler and PSA Groupe in 2021. 

Vay is showing off its teledriving tech with Peugeot this week at the Viva Technology industry trade fair in Paris.  

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

He added that Vay is also exploring the use of teledriving technology to address last-mile delivery through on-vehicle lockers linked to unique customer QR codes for pick-up.

Earlier this year, Vay announced the launch of a commercial teledriving service in Las Vegas, Nevada, enabling people to order cars to their location, which they can then drive themselves to their intended destination. 

Once a user is done with their trip, Vay’s teledriver can take over remotely and park the car, or drive it back to base. 

Vay has already conducted tests on public roads in Europe and the U.S. with remote drivers and no one behind the wheel. It is now working to get full regulatory approval for the tech on both sides of the Atlantic.

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

Von der Ohe was formerly a technical program manager at Zoox, the self-driving car startup Amazon purchased for an undisclosed sum in 2020. 

Notably, Vay says its technology is designed in such a way that it can eventually support self-driving functionality, as it is collecting valuable data on the physical environment. The company says it doesn’t plan to introduce an autonomous driving product any time soon, but sees teledriving as more of a “bridge” between manual driving and self-driving cars.

Artificial intelligence will power the stock market for the next decade, former Cisco CEO John Chambers told CNBC on Wednesday.

Chambers, who is also the founder and CEO of JC2 Ventures, said that AI will not only determine the winners and losers of the tech sector, but that shares related to the technology will likely outperform non-AI stocks about three to one on returns.

“AI will power the stock market for the next decade,” Chambers told CNBC’s Karen Tso on the sidelines of the VivaTech conference in Paris.

“I think the overall question if you’re an investor and you an invest in a portfolio of AI stocks, and [if] you did it consistently over the next five to 10 years, you’re going to do very well.”

Chambers said 38% of venture capital in the U.S. in the first quarter went into AI stocks. He expects that to increase to “way over” 50%, while assessing that 12% of venture capital went into AI stocks in Europe over the first-quarter period.

AI chipmaker Nvidia has seen its stock soar fivefold since the end of 2022. after more than doubling in 2023. The jump in demand for AI-related products has prompted much of the firm’s rally.

Chambers compared Nvidia’s place in the AI market to Cisco’s position in the internet market. “If you watch Nvidia’s sales, that’s going to be very indicative of what’s occurring overall,” he said.

Maurice Lévy, chairman of Publicis, stressed that an AI “transformation” will take place, as the technology undoubtedly eliminates some jobs, while at the same time creating more value-added roles.

“We don’t expect to see a net negative, we expect to see a net positive,” Lévy told CNBC on Wednesday. “And the companies that will adopt AI, the earlier they will do it, the more they will grow, and the more they will create jobs with really some great added value.”

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite rose to fresh record highs on Tuesday, as investors await earnings from Nvidia. The Nasdaq Composite has climbed around 12% this year.

“AI is the reason the stock market has moved so dramatically in the last 12 months,” Chambers said. “The European stocks and FTSE were slower to move, but they’ve been positive the last six months.”

“I think AI will be like the internet, except three to five times more powerful. It will change your life in every way.”

– Karen Gilchrist contributed to this report.

Chinese smartphone maker Honor on Wednesday became one of the first device makers to say it will bring Google’s artificial intelligence features to its upcoming devices.

Honor will integrate generative AI experiences into its forthcoming hardware, which will be powered by Google Cloud, the company said.

A spokesperson for the Chinese firm told CNBC that this would include Google’s AI assistant Gemini, as well as Imagen 2, a text-to-image generation tool.

Smartphone makers are attempting to bring AI features to their phones, in a bid to get users to upgrade to their latest flagship devices.

The integration with Google’s AI features builds on Honor already running the U.S. firm’s operating system Android on its smartphones. Designing advanced generative AI features can be difficult for individual smartphone makers, so partnering with Google gives them a shortcut to the latest generative AI apps that employ the tech.

Honor is among just a handful of companies to commit to Google’s AI tools. In January, Samsung announced a partnership with Google Cloud to bring Gemini Pro and Imagen 2 to its devices.

Honor has been talking up AI features in its devices this year. In February, the company launched the Magic 6 Pro with a feature powered by the company’s own AI that allows users to open an app just by looking at their phone. A user can stare as a notification pops up at the top of the screen, prompting the eye-tracking tech to open up the relevant app.