
Pony.ai joins hands with inDrive and NVIDIA to launch L4 autonomous driving service pilot in Astana, Kazakhstan
Chinese autonomous driving company Pony.ai announced that it is cooperating with inDrive and Nvidia to designate Kazakhstan as the first pilot market to expand its global business to Central Asia, and plans to launch L4 autonomous driving Robotaxi service in the capital Astana.
AI-generated summary
Chinese autonomous driving companies are actively exploring overseas markets, and Central Asia has become a new business growth point.
China News Service, Guangzhou, October 23. Chinese autonomous driving company Pony.ai announced on the 23rd that it has signed a memorandum of cooperation online with global travel and delivery platform inDrive and NVIDIA to jointly promote the implementation of autonomous driving travel products and applications. Kazakhstan will become the first pilot market for this cooperation. This is also the first time that Pony.ai has expanded its global business territory to Central Asia.
Kazakhstan is the largest economy in Central Asia. Its capital, Astana, is one of the fastest-growing capital cities in Central Asia. The demand for urban travel continues to grow, providing an ideal environment for Robotaxi.
According to the cooperation plan, Pony.ai will be responsible for the seventh-generation Robotaxi vehicles and autonomous driving technology, inDrive will be responsible for travel platform operations and service management, and NVIDIA will provide AI infrastructure support with the NVIDIA Hyperion autonomous driving computing platform and Halos safety system. The cooperation will evaluate the implementation plan for providing L4 autonomous driving travel to Kazakhstan passengers through the inDrive platform from the perspectives of technology, operations, regulations and business.
Pony.ai said that it and inDrive will take the lead in promoting the Robotaxi service pilot in the capital Astana after reaching an agreement with the Kazakhstan government. The seventh-generation Robotaxi is equipped with Pony.ai’s latest L4 autonomous driving technology, which has system-level redundancy and fail-safe operation capabilities. It has been fully verified in the commercial operation of autonomous driving in many cities in China, and has been launched in many overseas markets such as Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.
It is understood that inDrive has a mature travel operation and user group base in Kazakhstan and Central Asia. This cooperation is expected to provide a model for the expansion of autonomous driving travel services to more markets in Central Asia. In addition to Astana, all parties will continue to explore the possibility of deploying autonomous driving services in other cities in Kazakhstan and other countries. inDrive’s travel and delivery services cover more than 1,200 cities in 47 countries. Its mature travel platform and localized operation capabilities will provide key support for the implementation of Robotaxi.
Pony.ai founder and CEO Peng Jun said that with Pony.ai’s rich experience in operating large-scale fully unmanned Robotaxi in China and its solid accumulation of international market expansion, they look forward to working with inDrive and NVIDIA to explore how to apply L4 autonomous driving technology according to local conditions.
Arsen Tomsky, founder and CEO of inDrive, said Astana has long winters and long periods of snow and ice. Starting operations here will provide important verification for autonomous driving technology to cope with extreme winter conditions, and also accumulate valuable experience for future expansion into other alpine cities around the world.
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Robotaxi service pilot launched in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana
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