Another robotaxi player is lining up for Europe. Bolt, the Estonian ride-hailing platform, said on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, at Nvidia's GTC event in Berlin that it has selected Nvidia's Alpamayo Stack, Nvidia's full-stack self-driving software, for its European autonomous ride-hailing programme. It starts with Lucid vehicles in Madrid in 2027, with Germany and France named as key markets after that.

What Bolt announced

  • Madrid first: the programme begins in 2027, first gathering real-world driving data, subject to regulatory approval. Bolt told Reuters it expects "tens of vehicles" on Madrid's streets next year.
  • Why Madrid: the region has created a testing permit that allows limited commercial operations without full approval, Bolt's head of autonomous driving Jevgeni Kabanov told Reuters.
  • 25,000 Lucid cars: the programme lays the foundation for a rollout of at least 25,000 Level 4-ready Lucid vehicles fitted with Nvidia's Hyperion compute and sensor platform. Lucid and Bolt first announced that 25,000-vehicle partnership in September.
  • 100,000 by 2035: Bolt's wider goal is 100,000 autonomous vehicles across Europe and the wider UNECE region by 2035.
  • Offline driving: Kabanov told Reuters the driving software runs entirely inside the car, without connecting to the internet, for cybersecurity reasons.

"Our ambition isn't to bring autonomous driving to just a handful of cities," Kabanov said in Bolt's release. Nvidia automotive vice president Rishi Dhall said "robotaxis will scale when every vehicle is built on a common, safety-engineered foundation." Bolt also works with Pony.ai and Stellantis on autonomy, and has already launched autonomous mobility in Luxembourg, the company said.

What it means for Tesla

Madrid is filling up: Waymo also plans to start there in 2027 (see our story on Waymo's Madrid plan). Nvidia's Alpamayo is also the software behind recent Mercedes and Volvo deals (see Mercedes and Volvo pick Nvidia Alpamayo), so Tesla's FSD will face a common off-the-shelf rival as carmakers and ride-hailing apps race for European robotaxi permits.