Turkish shared mobility operator Tripy has announced plans to bring robotaxis to Türkiye, with Ankara as a potential starting point for testing.
Tripy is known predominantly for its micromobility operations, running a fleet of 7,200 shared e-bikes across Turkey and Azerbaijan.
Now, the company is taking its first move with autonomous vehicles with plans to begin testing Level 4 robotaxis on Turkish roads as early as this year, subject to approvals.
“The launch of this process will depend on the completion of the necessary testing permissions from the relevant authorities and it is currently targeted to begin between the end of 2026 and sometime in 2027,” Tripy CEO Dr. Ali Onuralp Ünal told Zag Daily.
“As potential starting locations, major cities with advanced technological infrastructure, such as Ankara, are currently being prioritised for consideration.”
Tripy’s robotaxi has been developed on the Maxus Mifa 7 electric vehicle platform and modified with Level 4 autonomous driving technology from Chinese firm CalmCar.
The operator reports more than 100,000 hours of robotaxi road testing logged in China, with Tripy now planning to bring the vehicles to its home nation of Türkiye.
Dr. Ünal said a “definitive fleet size” is not yet determined for the planned robotaxi fleet in Türkiye, stating that it depends on demand, regulatory limitations and findings from the testing period.
When asked why Tripy chose to test its robotaxis abroad, Dr. Ünal said that testing in China represents a “critical advantage” for the company, arguing that a market with more mature AV technology and policy puts robotaxis to a greater test than if they had been tested from the start in Türkiye.
“By undergoing intensive and long-term testing in countries where autonomous driving technology has reached a more advanced level of maturity than in Türkiye, the vehicles will already have passed an important threshold in terms of experience and safety by the time they arrive in the country,” Dr. Ünal said.
“This means that the local testing process will not begin from scratch but will instead be built on a proven technological foundation.”
Tripy is currently in the process of applying to test its self-driving vehicles in Türkiye, with no final permission granted yet.
If and when approval is secured, Tripy said it will roll out the robotaxi for a testing period of one year with safety drivers behind the wheel as well as an authorised test engineer inside the vehicle to monitor the behaviour of the autonomous driving system.
The company did not disclose a target for commercial operations to begin.
“Rather than announcing a fixed date at this stage, we consider commercial deployment to be a milestone that will depend on the results of the testing programme and the completion of the regulatory approval process,” said Dr. Ünal.
