Uber rival inDrive eyes 2027 robotaxi tests in Central Asia with Pony.ai and Nvidia
Kazakhstan is a genuinely interesting pick, well off the usual robotaxi map. inDrive's whole pitch is that riders name their price, which makes it a natural fit for markets where affordability matters more than flash. Testing in Astana, a city with brutal winters and wide boulevards, will tell you more about how Pony.ai's hardware copes with real conditions than another sunny California suburb ever could.
I'd want to know who actually carries the liability and what the local regulatory framework looks like. Kazakhstan has been courting tech investment, but autonomous vehicle rules are still thin on the ground. The 2027 date is far enough out that inDrive can adjust, and close enough that it has to start building the case now.
The Nvidia connection is worth watching too. If Pony.ai is standardizing on Nvidia's Drive platform, that gives the chipmaker another beachhead in a market where it already dominates. For inDrive, this is less about being first and more about being credible. A successful pilot in Central Asia would give it a story to tell in bigger markets later.