Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are getting closer to widespread use, but safely scaling them across Europe’s varied roads remains challenging. Diverse regulations, infrastructure, and complex city layouts mean AI systems need to be trained on real-world data rather than simulations alone.
Bolt, Europe’s leading mobility platform, has teamed up with NVIDIA to tackle this challenge. They’ll use NVIDIA’s DRIVE Hyperion system and models such as Alpamayo, Cosmos, and Omniverse to build a European AI base for safe, scalable autonomous driving.
The partnership, revealed at NVIDIA GTC 2026, will leverage data from Bolt’s fleet to accelerate AV development across Europe.
Making city transport more affordable, efficient, and sustainable
Founded in 2013 by Markus Villig in Tallinn, Estonia, Bolt aims to make city transport more affordable, efficient, and sustainable. It started as a small ride-hailing startup and has grown into a multi-service platform offering ride-hailing, car-sharing, micromobility, and food delivery.
Villig’s vision is to create smarter, cleaner cities through easy-to-use shared mobility. The autonomous driving project, led by President and Head of Autonomous Driving Jevgeni Kabanov, reflects this goal by combining safety, environmental care, and European tech independence.
Villig notes, “As the leading European shared mobility platform, Bolt is uniquely positioned to bring autonomous mobility technology into cities – we have the demand network, the city-by-city operational infrastructure, the regulatory relationships across more than 50 countries, and the platform that connects millions of riders with vehicles every day. Partnering with NVIDIA builds on our ongoing efforts to ensure Bolt will lead in safely deploying and operating autonomous mobility at scale in Europe.”
The magic happens in Bolt’s new “learning engine,” fed by real-world data from their fleet. NVIDIA Cosmos helps turn that data into rich visuals and sensor info, while Omniverse NuRec recreates 3D driving scenes down to the last detail. Alpamayo models help the AI learn Europe’s unique traffic quirks, and the DRIVE Hyperion platform ties it all together for real-time, on-the-road decisions.
Bolt puts European data sovereignty first, ensuring all processing complies with the GDPR and EU cybersecurity rules. By open-sourcing some tools, benchmarks, and frameworks, Bolt wants to make autonomous technology accessible to European small businesses and universities.
This open, data-driven approach sets Bolt apart from the likes of Waymo, Cruise, and Mobileye, who mostly rely on U.S.-centric data and simulations. Bolt’s homegrown know-how and regulatory chops give it a real edge in navigating Europe’s maze of infrastructure and safety rules.
So, what’s next?
This partnership moves Bolt closer to its long-term goal of putting 100,000 autonomous vehicles on the road by 2035. Over the next few years, Bolt will test its AV technology in major European cities and gradually roll it out to improve models in real-world settings.
At the same time, the company will expand its open collaboration network by inviting universities, startups, and local governments to support testing, safety checks, and simulations. The aim is to make Europe a global leader in safe, independent, and socially responsible autonomous mobility.
