Bolt picks Nvidia Alpamayo software for European robotaxi programme starting with Lucid vehicles in Madrid

Bolt confirms Nvidia software for its European autonomous programme

Bolt announced on 21 October 2026 that it has selected Nvidia's Alpamayo Stack, the company's full-stack autonomous-driving software, to drive vehicles in its European autonomous ride-hailing programme, beginning with Lucid vehicles. The announcement was carried by PR Newswire as a Bolt release and independently reported by Automotive World, Ground News and Spanish outlets. According to the release, the programme pairs Lucid's software-defined vehicles with Nvidia Hyperion and the Alpamayo Stack, running with Nvidia's Halos safety capabilities. ²³¹⁴

With the software selection in place, Bolt says it is preparing to bring its autonomous driving programme onto European roads, though the company describes a planned fleet programme rather than vehicles already operating as robotaxis. Bolt Autonomous Driving Solutions, Bolt's dedicated autonomous-driving unit, will lead development and commercialisation of the service in Europe, bringing fleet-management infrastructure, regulatory expertise and local market knowledge. ²

"Autonomous driving will change how people move around cities, and Europe should play a major role in how that future is built," said Jevgeni Kabanov, President and Head of Autonomous Driving at Bolt, in the company's announcement. ²

Madrid 2027: data collection first, subject to regulatory approval

The programme is expected to begin in Madrid during 2027, initially gathering real-world driving data to support development and validation of the autonomous driving technology, subject to regulatory approval. Ground News reports that Bolt will begin gathering real-world data next year using "tens of vehicles" in Madrid. This means the Madrid first step is data collection rather than carrying passengers, which Automotive World notes differs from Waymo's Madrid plan, announced a day earlier, to carry riders in 2027. ²⁴¹

Bolt's release highlights that the Region of Madrid is pioneering a structured framework for commercial autonomous mobility in coordination with national authorities. Ground News reports that Madrid serves as the pilot city partly because regional officials created a testing permit allowing limited commercial operations without full regulatory approval. Germany is also named by Bolt as a priority for what comes next, with France and Germany identified in the release as key markets for future deployment. ²⁴

Kabanov framed the Madrid step in the context of Bolt's earlier activity: "Following our first autonomous mobility launch in Luxembourg, our next step with NVIDIA and Lucid is to begin a programme in Madrid in 2027," he said in Bolt's announcement. Ground News also reports that Bolt plans to target major French and German cities by the end of next year. ²⁴

25,000 Lucid vehicles on Nvidia Hyperion, targeting 100,000 by 2035

The Nvidia and Lucid programme is described as the foundation for a rollout of at least 25,000 Level 4-ready Lucid vehicles equipped with Nvidia Hyperion, Bolt's standardised compute and sensor architecture for the fleet. "NVIDIA Hyperion standardizes the compute and sensor architecture across vehicle platforms," said Rishi Dhall, vice president of automotive at Nvidia, in Bolt's release. ²⁴

The programme forms part of Bolt's wider plan to deploy 100,000 autonomous vehicles across Europe and the wider UNECE region by 2035. "Our ambition isn't to bring autonomous driving to just a handful of cities. We want to make autonomous ride-hailing available at scale across Europe, with 100,000 vehicles on our platform by 2035," Kabanov said in the announcement. Bolt operates in more than 50 countries and 850 cities, serving more than 200 million customers according to its release. ²¹

Kay Stepper, President of Lucid Technologies and Chief Digital Officer at Lucid, called Lucid's vehicle architecture an ideal foundation for integrating the Alpamayo technology with Bolt's mobility platform, describing the collaboration and the launch of data collection next year as "first steps toward bringing scalable, software-defined autonomous mobility in Europe." ²⁴

Alpamayo, Halos and what the software choice involves

Alpamayo Stack is Nvidia's full-stack driving software, combining reasoning AI with classical perception and planning, supported by safety guardrails for complex traffic, running on the Hyperion compute and sensor architecture. Bolt's release states the programme will be built with Nvidia Halos, the company's safety system covering safety-engineered computing, system software, AI guardrails and validation tools, including simulation and real-world testing capabilities for monitoring system behaviour. Ground News additionally reports that, for cybersecurity reasons, the driving software runs entirely inside the car, as stated by Kabanov. ²⁴

Bolt and Nvidia say they will work together to adapt the driving software for European roads and integrate it into vehicles from multiple manufacturers, beginning with Lucid. Automotive World's analysis notes that supplying driving software as well as compute and sensors takes Nvidia into competition with AV developers, and that a common Hyperion foundation could lower the barrier for platforms to field robotaxis without in-house software stacks. ²¹

Context: Bolt's parallel programmes and Madrid's robotaxi race

The Nvidia and Lucid programme sits alongside Bolt's other autonomous partnerships. In a programme announced in 2026, Bolt is working with Pony.ai and Stellantis on autonomous mobility testing in Luxembourg, validating the safety, performance and regulatory readiness of Pony.ai's seventh-generation autonomous vehicles, with Stellantis contributing a midsize van based on its L4-Ready Platform. Bolt lists this as its first autonomous mobility launch. ³²⁵

Bolt's announcement came a day after Waymo named Madrid for its own 2027 launch, and Spanish outlet reporting collected by Ground News notes that Uber has also received Spanish approval to install its autonomous driving programme in Madrid. Automotive World's analysis observes that Bolt's model is effectively the mirror image of Waymo's: Bolt brings the platform and fleet and buys in driving software, while Waymo builds its own Driver and hands fleet operations to partners, and that in Madrid Waymo aims to carry riders in 2027 while Bolt's first step is data collection. ¹⁴

Automotive World's analysis also points out that Bolt's pitch of autonomy "on European terms" rests on United States and Chinese partners, including Nvidia, Lucid and Pony.ai, contrasting with European Union ambitions for a sovereign European driving stack. No Australian rollout of the Bolt programme has been reported, and Australian availability of the autonomous service is not established by this announcement. ¹²