inDrive plans Pony.ai robotaxis in Kazakhstan for 2027 with Nvidia supplying the stack, Uber rival skips Western regulatory thicket for Astana testbed

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Jagmeet Singh techcrunch.com

inDrive, the ride-hailing company that built its business on letting passengers and drivers negotiate fares in emerging markets, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Chinese autonomous driving firm Pony.ai and Nvidia to begin robotaxi testing in Kazakhstan in 2027. Testing will start in Astana in the first half of the year, initially with a safety operator behind the wheel. Under the plan, Pony.ai supplies its Gen-7 robotaxis, inDrive offers them through its own app and operates them locally, and Nvidia provides the AI layer — its Hyperion platform and Halos safety system, along with its Alpamayo model for generating synthetic driving data. Nvidia says a ready-made foundation of sensors and computing can lower the cost of building a robotaxi rather than requiring each company to integrate everything itself. Nvidia's automotive vice president, Ali Kani, said those savings matter most in emerging markets, where ride-hailing is already relatively affordable and autonomous services must compete on cost. The announcement coincided with Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang's first visit to Kazakhstan. Pony.ai aims to have more than 3,500 robotaxis in over 20 cities worldwide by the end of 2026, from a fleet of 1,975 vehicles at the end of June. Kazakhstan announced plans last month to launch autonomous taxi services in 2027, with trials in Astana and two other cities, and has introduced rules allowing autonomous vehicles on certain public roads. Astana has roughly 1.7 million residents and months of snow and ice — conditions that have grounded or slowed autonomous pilots in milder Western cities. inDrive founder Arsen Tomsky framed the winter as a feature: launching there would test the technology in conditions that many markets share. The company has also signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia's AI Driver to explore deploying vehicles powered by China's WeRide, starting with Riyadh, with a pilot targeted for the first half of 2026. For comparison, Uber announced plans this month to test Pony.ai robotaxis in London and has begun supervised autonomous rides there with the startup Wayve — still with safety drivers present. The fully driverless miles will run first through the countries that clear the paperwork fastest.