inDrive and Pony.ai plan Astana robotaxi tests pending Kazakhstan government agreement
NVIDIA would provide the AI infrastructure, while any service remains contingent on a government agreement
inDrive, Pony.ai and NVIDIA have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore an autonomous ride-hailing service in Kazakhstan, naming Astana as the first proposed test city. The arrangement remains exploratory: any launch would follow an agreement with Kazakhstan’s government.
The partners will assess the technical, operational, regulatory and commercial feasibility of offering Level 4-ready vehicles through the inDrive app. Pony.ai would provide its seventh-generation robotaxis, while inDrive would operate the ride-hailing service and NVIDIA would supply AI infrastructure support.
The project is intended to use NVIDIA Hyperion, a reference sensor and computing platform for Level 4 vehicles and robotaxis, alongside NVIDIA’s Halos safety system. Pony.ai says its Gen-7 vehicle combines multiple sensor types, system-level redundancy and fail-operational capabilities intended to support driverless operation.
Kazakhstan was selected as the first market because of its regulatory readiness, according to the companies. The country has introduced rules permitting autonomous-vehicle testing on certain public roads and has announced plans for autonomous taxi trials in 2027 in Astana and two other cities.
Astana, a capital of about 1.7 million people, would also give the companies a demanding environment in which to assess the technology. Long winters, snow and ice pose particular challenges for automated driving, and inDrive founder and chief executive Arsen Tomsky said success there could offer lessons for other locations with similarly difficult conditions.
Pony.ai says its autonomous-driving technology has already operated commercially without drivers in major Chinese cities, while it has deployments in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. inDrive operates in more than 1,200 cities across 47 countries, giving the partners a potential route to consider expansion to other Kazakh cities and additional inDrive markets after an initial Astana service.
A precise official launch timetable has not been announced. TechCrunch reported that initial Astana testing is planned for the first half of 2027, likely with a safety operator before any fully driverless rides.