The Pulse
Pony.ai and inDrive Make Astana Robotaxis Conditional on Approval
Pony.ai, inDrive and NVIDIA signed an agreement on October 23 to assess robotaxi service in Kazakhstan, with Astana as the proposed first city. The partners say a launch would require an agreement with the Kazakh government; they have not s
AI.info Team · Written with AI · fact-checked ·
Astana is a plan, not an approved service
Pony.ai and inDrive want to bring robotaxis to Astana, but the announcement they made on October 23 sets a condition before any service can begin: an agreement with Kazakhstan’s government. The companies, joined by NVIDIA, signed a memorandum of understanding to study autonomous ride-hailing, not a permit to carry passengers. They have not announced a launch date.
The distinction matters. The partners plan to assess whether a service is technically, operationally, commercially and legally feasible, while a possible Astana launch remains contingent on government agreement. The announcement names Kazakhstan as the first market for evaluation and Astana as the intended first city; it does not say driverless taxis are already testing on city streets.
Three companies, three roles
If the project proceeds, Pony.ai would supply its seventh-generation robotaxis, inDrive would provide the booking app and operate the service, and NVIDIA would contribute AI infrastructure. The vehicle offering is described as “Level 4-ready”—the partners are evaluating whether autonomous vehicles can be offered to riders through the inDrive app. NVIDIA Hyperion, a reference sensor and compute platform for Level 4 vehicles, would be paired with the Alpamayo Stack and NVIDIA Halos safety system.
Pony.ai says its Gen-7 vehicles combine multiple sensors, system-level redundancy and fail-operational capabilities. The company also points to fully driverless commercial operations in major Chinese cities and deployments in Europe, the Middle East and Asia as experience it could bring to the Kazakhstan project. Those credentials describe Pony.ai’s existing work; they do not establish that its vehicles have been approved for public service in Kazakhstan.
Astana’s winter becomes part of the test
inDrive founder and CEO Arsen Tomsky framed Kazakhstan as a place to examine how autonomous vehicles handle local roads and weather. “Launching here will provide an important opportunity to evaluate autonomous driving technology in challenging winter conditions,” he said in the company’s announcement. The release describes Astana as having long winters, snow and ice, making seasonal performance a stated consideration for the proposed project.
Tomsky also described the exercise as a way to consider what the technology could mean for passengers and drivers across inDrive’s markets. That is an ambition, not a result: the companies have yet to establish whether the service can meet local operating, regulatory and commercial requirements. Pony.ai says Kazakhstan’s regulatory readiness, including what it calls the country’s first structured legal framework for driverless transport, helped make it the initial test market.
Expansion depends on a first launch
The partners say they would first assess a service in Astana, then consider whether to extend it to other Kazakh cities or other countries where inDrive operates. The proposed sequence leaves the earliest step unresolved: a government agreement must come before the planned launch. The memorandum sets out who would provide the vehicles, app and technical support, but the companies have not disclosed a schedule, fleet size or investment amount.
For now, the agreement is a feasibility effort with a named city and a defined vehicle platform—not a confirmed robotaxi rollout. Astana’s winter driving conditions and the government’s approval are both part of what the partners must address before riders can book a trip.