inDrive, the App Where You Negotiate the Fare With the Driver, Starts Robotaxi Tests in Astana in 2027: Snow Will Put the Chinese Vehicles to the Test

inDrive, the ride-hailing service known for letting passenger and driver agree the fare themselves, has signed a memorandum with the Chinese autonomous driving company Pony.ai and with Nvidia. The plan: robotaxi tests in Kazakhstan. The first rides in the capital Astana are scheduled for the first half of 2027, initially with a safety operator in the vehicle, and the goal is driving with nobody at the wheel.

The division of roles is clear. Pony.ai provides its seventh-generation robotaxis, inDrive offers them through its app and operates them in Kazakhstan, and Nvidia provides the technology - the Hyperion platform and the Halos safety system. "Our approach is deliberately capital-light," says inDrive's chief technology officer, Yuriy Misnik. Translation: the vehicles and the software belong to others, the app is ours.

Nvidia makes no secret of why this matters to it. Its vice president for the automotive industry, Ali Kani, says a ready-made platform cuts development costs, and that is "especially important in emerging markets, where transport is already relatively cheap and autonomous services have to compete on price". The announcement coincided with Nvidia boss Jensen Huang's first visit to Kazakhstan.

Astana was also chosen because of the winter. The city of around 1.7 million people spends months under snow and ice, which is a nightmare for autonomous systems. "Success in Astana can provide valuable insights for expanding autonomous transport to other places with similar challenges," says inDrive's founder and CEO, Arsen Tomsky. Last month Kazakhstan announced it wants autonomous taxi services in 2027 and has already introduced rules for testing on some public roads.

The race is global. Uber has already announced tests with Pony.ai in London. In December, inDrive signed a similar deal in Saudi Arabia, with the company AI Driver and vehicles using technology from China's WeRide - but it is still unclear whether the tests there have even started. Pony.ai wants to have more than 3,500 robotaxis in over 20 cities by the end of 2026, up from the 1,975 vehicles it had at the end of June.

inDrive operates in more than 1,200 cities in 47 countries and builds its business on cheap transport. Misnik says the key condition for any new launch is favourable regulation and cooperation from the state. Kazakhstan wrote the rules before the vehicles arrived. How many Balkan governments would do the same, in that order?