Freedom Holding and Chinese company Baidu are preparing to launch a driverless taxi service in Kazakhstan. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
The founder and head of the holding, Timur Turlov, announced the plans on Facebook after signing a package of agreements with major Chinese technology companies in Shanghai. According to him, Baidu became one of the key partners.
"We are preparing to launch robotaxis with Baidu. Their Apollo Go service already carries millions in China, and by combining their technologies with our knowledge and engineering capabilities, we can create our own unique service for our country. Thanks to these two partnerships, Kazakhstan can truly become a regional leader in robotaxis," wrote Timur Turlov.
The service is planned based on Apollo Go technologies — Baidu's driverless taxi service that already operates in several major Chinese cities.
In addition to robotaxis, Freedom Holding signed a memorandum with Geely and SK to create a national network of fast charging stations for electric vehicles with integration into SuperApp. The document also provides for localization of charging station production in Kazakhstan and was signed in the presence of the country's president.
Furthermore, the company agreed with Alibaba Cloud to expand Kazakhstan's cloud infrastructure based on the Akashi data center in Astana. According to Timur Turlov, this will allow the introduction of modern cloud technologies, create new jobs for engineers, and develop products for both the domestic market and export.
Another area of cooperation will be the localization of agricultural drones and the production of delivery drones. Pilot projects for drone delivery in major cities have been ongoing for more than six months.
According to the head of Freedom Holding, the company currently employs more than 2,500 engineers and developers, which will allow the introduction and adaptation of advanced Chinese technologies to the Kazakhstan market.
Earlier, Kursiv Avto reported that a robotaxi being prepared for launch in Kazakhstan was shown in Almaty.