Author | Janson

Editor | Zhihao

CheXiwu News on August 19, recently, Pony.ai and global mobility platform Uber announced further expanding strategic cooperation, planning to deploy more than 2,000 Pony.ai Robotaxis in 5 cities in Europe. This is one of the largest Robotaxi deployment plans in Europe, and consequently, Pony.ai's total overseas deployment plan exceeds 4,000 vehicles.

This cooperation between Pony.ai and Uber will be based on the existing commercial operations in Zagreb, Croatia, and expand to 5 European cities including Zagreb.

▲ Pony.ai Founder and CEO Peng Jun (right) and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi (left)

Meanwhile, Zagreb Robotaxi service will soon integrate into the Uber platform, and users can call Pony.ai Robotaxis through the Uber App.

From single-city operations in Zagreb to 5 cities in Europe and over 2,000 vehicles, the cooperation between Pony.ai and Uber is crossing a key milestone.

Why can both parties quickly replicate the same set of technologies, products, and operational models across multiple cities?

In response, technology, platforms, and operations are organized into the same "Jointly Built Fleet" system.

Pony.ai is working with overseas partners to replicate the autonomous driving technology, mass-produced products, and commercialization capabilities verified in the Chinese market to broader overseas markets.

01.

From Zagreb to Five European Cities

Pony.ai and Uber Build Robotaxi Fleet Together

In this expansion, Pony.ai and Uber collaborated to explore a "Jointly Built Fleet" model involving both technology providers and mobility platforms.

Compared to full-chain self-operation, this division of labor can reduce redundant construction.

Pony.ai does not need to build a mobility platform and complete offline operational system from scratch in every overseas city, and Uber does not need to develop L4 autonomous driving systems itself.

Both parties can introduce partners familiar with the local market on the basis of their respective capabilities to promote vehicle management and city operations. Vehicle capital investment and asset ownership are also not using fixed schemes.

According to the cooperation framework disclosed by both parties, participating parties can assume multiple roles based on local market conditions. Who invests the vehicles and who holds the assets can be flexibly arranged in combination with specific cities.

This allows the same cooperation model to adapt to different markets, rather than redesigning a business architecture for every city.

Of course, jointly built fleets do not mean bypassing localization work. When Robotaxis enter new countries and cities, regulatory communication, vehicle access, testing verification, and operating licenses still need to be promoted. This part of the work is exactly the strength of local partners, especially partners with rich experience like Uber, while Pony.ai leverages its own technology and operational advantages to adapt products to local road environments, traffic rules, and user needs.

The value of local partners lies in supplementing city resources and operational experience, improving project implementation efficiency. Pony.ai still needs to be responsible for the safety, stability, and continuous iteration of the autonomous driving system.

Based on previous experience, Zagreb has already completed the preliminary verification of this model.

▲ Pony.ai Robotaxis in Europe

Zagreb has already completed the single-city verification of this model. In May this year, Pony.ai, Uber, and Croatian local company Verne cooperated to launch commercial Robotaxi services locally.

Next, the three parties need to verify whether this model can adapt to road, regulatory, and operational environments in different cities. Moving from single-city landing to regional replication is precisely the core value of "Jointly Built Fleets". Parties recombine existing capabilities, thereby reducing capital pressure and execution complexity for entering new markets, providing a foundation for Robotaxis to move from point landing to regional scale operations.

02.

From Technology Verification to Thousand-Vehicle Deployment

Why Pony.ai Received Uber's Increased Investment

The core reason for Uber expanding cooperation with Pony.ai is not complicated. The platform needs Robotaxi capacity that can serve in old town areas with complex European road conditions, accept orders during peak ride-hailing hours such as rainy days, and has a total cost of hardware and operations that is low enough.

Pony.ai has completed the leap from technology testing to commercial operations.

Currently, Pony.ai has carried out fully autonomous Robotaxi commercial operations in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, possessing 1,975 Robotaxis.

At the same time, Pony.ai's global autonomous driving road test mileage exceeds 100 million kilometers, of which fully autonomous road test mileage exceeds 40 million kilometers.

Complex roads, real users, and normalized operations jointly tested the safety and stability of its autonomous driving system.

But for Uber, for the technology to work is just the basis. Integrating Robotaxis into mobility platforms also requires ensuring that vehicles can provide long-term stable service in complex core urban areas where ride-hailing demand is most vigorous, rain or shine, and that the riding experience can be accepted by users. Service quality will not decrease after fleet scale expansion.

Pony.ai's user experience and scale fleet operation experience accumulated in domestic tier-one cities meet Uber's high requirements for operations in Europe, thus becoming Uber's largest autonomous driving partner in Europe.

▲ Pony.ai Robotaxis in China

Beyond technology, commercialization capability is equally critical. Pony.ai's Seventh Generation Robotaxi has achieved per-vehicle profitability in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, indicating that its Robotaxis not only can complete fully autonomous driving but also start to balance revenue and costs.

For Uber, only when the per-vehicle economic model is established can autonomous driving capacity expand from a small number of demonstration vehicles to a continuous operation thousand-vehicle fleet.

Another capability supporting scale expansion is automotive-grade mass production.

Pony.ai's Seventh Generation Robotaxi already possesses mass production and deployment capabilities, and its technology, safety, user experience, and cost control have all been tested by actual operations.

Compared to test vehicles modified for individual projects, standardized and mass-producible Robotaxis are more suitable for cross-city replication and can also provide a stable foundation for subsequent vehicle supplementation and fleet operations.

Beyond mass production capabilities, cost advantages further expanded Pony.ai's scale deployment space.

Pony.ai Founder and CEO Peng Jun previously stated that Pony.ai's vehicle costs are approximately one-fourth to one-fifth of Waymo's. This gap comes from the joint effect of technological R&D, supply chain, and engineering capabilities.

Lower vehicle investment means overseas partners can deploy more vehicles with the same funds, and also leave more space for return on investment after fleet expansion.

For Uber, what Pony.ai provides is not only L4 virtual drivers but also automotive-grade mass-produced vehicle models, verified user experience, and sustainable per-vehicle economic models.

This is also the key to Uber choosing to cooperate with Pony.ai for increased investment.

With this, Pony.ai's role in overseas markets has also changed. Pony.ai started providing Robotaxi products capable of batch deployment and autonomous driving capacity capabilities to global mobility platforms.

03.

Fleet Scale Expansion

Pony.ai's "Dual Engine" Begins to Turn

Europe 5 cities, over 2,000 vehicle fleet, global total planned scale of 4,000 vehicles. The scale means Pony.ai's overseas layout began to shift from single-city landing to regional scale operations.

In the future, what Pony.ai will form in Europe will no longer be several scattered projects, but a Robotaxi operational network covering multiple cities.

Thousand-vehicle scale is also an important watershed for Robotaxi commercialization.

Only when the number of vehicles reaches a certain scale can regional coverage density and capacity dispatch efficiency be improved, allowing users to hail cars more easily, and further improve the per-vehicle economic model by relying on more orders and scale effects.

Built upon the Seventh Generation Robotaxi per-vehicle profitability and cost advantages, Pony.ai already possesses the foundation to scale up the business model verified domestically to European thousand-vehicle fleets.

Europe provides a larger value space for this model.

European cities are dense, and shared mobility markets are mature. Labor and vehicle usage costs are relatively high, providing a larger commercial value space for Robotaxis.

Pony.ai's per-vehicle economic model that has run through is expected to obtain higher revenue and greater profit space locally. Better vehicle returns will also enhance the willingness of platforms and operational partners to expand deployment.

After scale expansion, what Pony.ai obtains is not just the number of vehicle deployments.

According to the business model of the jointly built fleet this time, European fleet operations are expected to bring it technical licensing, passenger fare sharing, and other ongoing revenue.

The more vehicles, the broader the covered cities, Pony.ai's revenue sources will also gradually shift from project cooperation to long-term returns linked to actual operational scale.

This is precisely the core of Pony.ai's "China + Overseas" dual-engine strategy.

▲ Pony.ai Robotaxis in the Middle East

The Chinese market undertakes product verification and industrialization tasks. Pony.ai relies on complex domestic urban road environments to hone technology, verify business models, and leverage mature automotive supply chains to promote automotive-grade mass production and continuous cost reduction.

The overseas market undertakes scale amplification and revenue growth tasks, replicating domestic-verified Robotaxi products and business models to high-value incremental markets.

The two markets thus form a mutually reinforcing cycle.

Domestically mature products and lower costs provide a foundation for overseas deployment; overseas fleet and service scope expansion releases greater commercial value, while bringing back operational experience under different roads, regulations, and user needs, pushing products to continue iteration.

Europe 5 cities is just an important step in this global expansion path.

Currently, Pony.ai has obtained autonomous driving test or operating licenses in markets such as the Middle East, Singapore, South Korea, Luxembourg, and Croatia, and proposed the target of entering over 20 cities globally in 2026 with fleet scale breaking 3,500 vehicles.

What Pony.ai outputs to overseas is no longer just a set of autonomous driving algorithms, but Robotaxi products, supply chain capabilities, and commercial operational methodologies verified in Chinese megacities.

At this point, Pony.ai's "China + Overseas" dual engine begins to truly turn.

04.

Conclusion: Robotaxi Enters the "Scale Operation" Stage

The next stage of Robotaxi competition is about who can truly organize technology, vehicles, orders, capital, and offline operations.

Uber's continued investment has also gradually formed a closed loop for Pony.ai's joint fleet model in Europe.

Over 2,000 new deployments, and the global 4,000 vehicle planned deployment expectation. If these can be successively converted into stable operating real fleets, what they verify is not just one enterprise's overseas path, but a Robotaxi commercialization methodology originating from the Chinese market and facing global replication.