- Pony.ai signed an MoU with inDrive and NVIDIA to pilot Level 4 robotaxi services in Kazakhstan, reflecting a push to internationalize operations amid regional regulatory openness and AI policy support.
- Pony.ai will supply seventh-generation Robotaxis; fleet totaled 1,975 vehicles as of June 30, 2026, with plans to exceed 3,500 by year-end and overseas deployments exceeding 4,000.
- Targeting ride-hailing competition in Central Asia, the project risks regulatory uncertainty, operational scaling challenges, and dependence on partners for platform operations and NVIDIA’s compute stack.
Pony.ai has signed a memorandum of understanding with global mobility and delivery platform inDrive and NVIDIA to advance autonomous ride-hailing services and applications, the company announced on October 23.
Kazakhstan will serve as the partnership’s first pilot market, marking Pony.ai’s first expansion into Central Asia.
Under the agreement, Pony.ai will supply its seventh-generation Robotaxis and autonomous driving technology. inDrive will handle platform operations and service management, while NVIDIA will provide AI infrastructure through its Hyperion autonomous driving computing platform and Halos safety system.
The three companies will assess the feasibility of offering Level 4 autonomous ride-hailing services to local passengers through inDrive, evaluating technical readiness, operations, regulatory requirements and commercial viability.
The move comes as Kazakhstan steps up policy support for autonomous driving. In June, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed a decree to accelerate digitalization and AI development. The country has also established a legal framework for driverless transportation, providing clearer rules for autonomous vehicle testing and operations.
Pony.ai’s Central Asian expansion reflects its efforts to take its Robotaxi operations overseas.
The company has entered regular commercial operations with its seventh-generation Robotaxis. Vehicles based on models from BAIC, GAC and Toyota are all in daily service.
As of June 30, 2026, Pony.ai operated a fleet of 1,975 Robotaxis through its own operations and partnerships. It plans to expand the fleet to more than 3,500 by the end of this year. On August 10, the company announced that its autonomous vehicles had logged more than 100 million kilometers worldwide.
Overseas, Pony.ai’s Robotaxi business spans nine countries, with passenger services operating in China, Croatia, Qatar, Singapore and South Korea.
The company is also pursuing partnerships with other overseas mobility platforms. Its planned overseas Robotaxi deployments now exceed 4,000 vehicles, including a strategic partnership with Uber that is moving toward implementation. The two companies plan to deploy more than 2,000 autonomous ride-hailing vehicles across five major European cities in phases.
Pony.ai is also extending its autonomous driving technology to commercial vehicles. On September 14, it unveiled an L4 autonomous heavy-duty truck or Robotruck, developed jointly with GAC Lingcheng, at the IAA Transportation show in Hanover, Germany.
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