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Pony.ai, inDrive and NVIDIA are joining forces to explore the introduction of autonomous ride-hailing services in Kazakhstan, marking a potential expansion of robotaxi technology into Central Asia. Announced on October 23, 2026, the collaboration will combine Pony.ai’s autonomous driving technology, inDrive’s mobility platform and NVIDIA’s AI infrastructure, with the capital city of Astana identified as the initial deployment market.
The three companies have signed a memorandum of understanding to evaluate the technical, operational, regulatory and commercial feasibility of introducing Level 4 autonomous vehicles through the inDrive application. Under the proposed arrangement, Pony.ai would supply its seventh-generation robotaxis, inDrive would manage the ride-hailing service, and NVIDIA would provide the AI infrastructure supporting the autonomous driving platform.
At the center of the initiative is Pony.ai’s Gen-7 Robotaxi, designed for fully driverless operations within defined operating conditions. The vehicle incorporates multiple sensors, redundant systems and fail-operational capabilities intended to maintain safe operation when individual components encounter problems. Pony.ai has already deployed its autonomous driving technology in China and expanded testing and operations into markets across Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
NVIDIA’s contribution will build on its Hyperion platform, a reference architecture combining sensors and computing hardware for Level 4 autonomous vehicles. The broader NVIDIA robotaxi technology ecosystem also includes the Alpamayo autonomous driving stack and Halos safety framework. Together, these technologies are intended to help developers build, validate and deploy autonomous driving systems at scale.
Kazakhstan was selected as the initial market partly because of its emerging regulatory framework for driverless transportation. The country has introduced its first structured legal framework for autonomous vehicles as part of its national focus on digitalization and artificial intelligence. Astana, with a population of approximately 1.7 million, offers a growing urban mobility market where robotaxis could complement existing transportation services.
For inDrive, the partnership represents an opportunity to introduce autonomous vehicles into its established ride-hailing ecosystem. The platform operates in more than 1,200 cities across 47 countries, potentially offering a distribution network for future autonomous mobility services. However, the proposed Astana launch remains subject to an agreement with Kazakhstan’s government, and the companies have not announced a confirmed commercial launch date.
If the initial deployment moves forward, the partners intend to assess opportunities in other Kazakh cities and additional markets where inDrive operates. The collaboration highlights the growing importance of partnerships between autonomous driving developers, mobility platforms and AI infrastructure providers as the robotaxi industry looks beyond established markets toward broader international commercialization.
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