Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang unveiled open source autonomous driving software and training data at CES, positioning transparency as a trust-building edge as competition in automotive AI intensifies.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced the wider release of open-source autonomous driving software at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, positioning transparency as a key differentiator as competition across automotive and AI chips continues to mount.
The software, called Alpamayo, is designed to help self-driving vehicles make path-planning and decision-making choices, while also generating a traceable paper trail that engineers can analyse after deployment. Nvidia said the software will be released alongside the data used to train it, enabling automakers to independently assess performance, safety, and reliability.
“Not only do we open-source the models, we also open source the data that we use to train those models, because only in that way can you truly trust how the models came to be,” Huang said during his CES keynote.
The move signals a shift away from proprietary, black-box autonomy systems towards verifiable and auditable AI development, as Nvidia seeks to strengthen its ecosystem through openness rather than hardware exclusivity.
The announcement comes as Nvidia faces growing pressure from rivals as well as major customers developing in-house AI chips. The company recently acquired talent and chip technology from startup Groq, including executives who played key roles in helping Alphabet’s Google design its own AI processors. While Google remains a significant Nvidia customer, its custom chips, developed alongside partners such as Meta Platforms, are increasingly viewed as a competitive threat.
At the same time, Nvidia is emphasising that its latest products outperform older chips such as the H200, which U.S. President Donald Trump has permitted to be sold to China. Reuters has reported strong demand for the H200 in China, raising concerns among China hawks across the U.S. political spectrum.
