Einride expands Nvidia partnership to deploy AI reasoning model for self-driving trucks

Oct 21 (Reuters) - Self-driving truck company Einride said on Wednesday it would broaden its partnership with Nvidia by testing the chipmaker's AI reasoning model, Alpamayo, in its self-driving vehicles, aiming to speed up the expansion of autonomous freight services while lowering development costs.

Alpamayo is Nvidia's vision language action model, which can interpret driving environments, recommend vehicle actions and explain its reasoning.

• The Swedish company said it plans to become the first trucking operator to deploy Alpamayo, adapting the model using data collected from its commercial freight operations

• Einride said the technology could help shorten development cycles and make it easier to extend autonomous driving capabilities to new vehicle types and routes, with a live road evaluation planned for the second half of 2027

• The partnership builds on a broader Nvidia tie-up announced in September covering autonomous driving, safety systems and AI model training

• The companies will initially test Alpamayo in "shadow mode", where the model runs alongside existing systems without controlling the vehicle, allowing its decisions to be compared with those of Einride's driving software and human driver

• The announcement follows Einride's September rollout of what it said was the first cab-less autonomous truck operating in regular service on public roads in Germany, transporting goods for supermarket chain Lidl

• Einride was among several European mobility companies highlighted by Nvidia on Wednesday as showcasing autonomous vehicle applications on the Nvidia Hyperion platform, alongside Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles and Bolt

(Reporting by Prathik Jayaprakash in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)