Gasgoo Munich-Pony.ai is teaming up with global mobility platform inDrive and NVIDIA to pilot a Robotaxi service in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. The companies signed a memorandum of understanding on Oct. 23, marking Pony.ai' s first expansion into Central Asia.
Image Credit: Pony.ai
Under the agreement, Pony.ai will supply its seventh-generation Robotaxi vehicles and Level 4 autonomous driving technology, while inDrive handles platform operations and service management. NVIDIA, for its part, will provide AI infrastructure support through its NVIDIA Hyperion autonomous driving computing platform and Halos safety system. Together, the partners aim to evaluate a roadmap for delivering L4 autonomous rides to local passengers via the inDrive platform, assessing technical, operational, regulatory, and commercial factors.
Once an agreement with the Kazakh government is reached, the pilot will launch first in Astana. With a population of roughly 1.7 million, the capital city sees steadily growing demand for mobility. Beyond Astana, the partners plan to explore deploying autonomous services in other cities across Kazakhstan and abroad. inDrive currently operates in more than 1,200 cities across 47 countries, leveraging its localized operational expertise to support the Robotaxi rollout.
Pony.ai Founder and CEO Peng Jun expressed optimism about working with partners to adapt L4 autonomous driving technology for local markets. Arsen Tomsky, Founder and CEO of inDrive, highlighted Astana's long, snow-heavy winters as a critical testing ground. Launching operations there, he said, will validate the technology's ability to handle extreme winter conditions and build experience for future expansion into other cold-climate cities globally.
Kazakhstan signed a decree in June to advance digitalization and artificial intelligence, establishing a legal framework for driverless transportation that provides institutional backing for autonomous testing and operations. Pony.ai' s seventh-generation Robotaxis feature system-level redundancy and fail-safe capabilities. The vehicles are already in commercial driverless operation in several Chinese cities, with deployments gradually expanding into overseas markets including Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.
