Uber and China's Pony AI announced Friday that they are expanding their partnership to deploy more than 2,000 robotaxis across Europe, a major step up from the single commercial pilot the two companies launched in Zagreb, Croatia earlier this year. The expanded deal will bring driverless rides to four additional, still-unnamed European cities, with the companies saying rollout details will be announced in phases over the coming months.
Under the arrangement, Pony AI supplies its Level 4 autonomous driving technology along with the operational know-how it has built running robotaxi fleets across China, while Uber contributes its ride-hailing platform, handling bookings, payments and customer service. A local partner in each market will manage day-to-day fleet operations such as maintenance, cleaning and charging, meaning the robotaxi fleet itself could be owned by different companies depending on the city.
Building on a Year-Old Partnership
The collaboration between the two companies dates back to May 2025, when they first agreed to bring Pony AI's robotaxis onto the Uber app in international markets, with an initial focus on the Middle East. That partnership extended to Europe in March 2026, when Uber and Pony AI teamed up with Croatian mobility company Verne to launch what they describe as the continent's first commercial robotaxi service in Zagreb — a service that is now set to become bookable directly through the Uber app.
Pony AI CEO James Peng described the expanded deal as reflecting a shared commitment to bringing reliable robotaxi service to more European cities, while Uber's autonomous mobility leadership framed the moment as autonomous driving's shift from isolated pilot launches toward repeatable commercial scale. Pony AI already runs fully driverless, paid robotaxi services in four major Chinese cities — Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen — where the company says it has reached breakeven economics on a city-wide basis.
Part of a Bigger Robotaxi Race
The announcement lands amid a broader scramble among ride-hailing and autonomous vehicle companies to build out fleet scale, which is increasingly seen as the key bottleneck for the robotaxi industry. More vehicles on the road mean more real-world data to prove safety to regulators, plus better utilization and lower wait times that make the service viable for everyday riders rather than a novelty.
Uber has now partnered with more than 30 autonomous vehicle companies globally as it works to embed self-driving options across its platform rather than betting on a single technology provider. The Pony AI expansion follows closely on the heels of Uber's separate tie-up with UK-based Wayve Technologies, which recently secured approval to run a supervised robotaxi service in London, adding yet another market to Uber's growing autonomous ambitions across the continent.
Both companies also confirmed plans to explore robotaxi deployment in the Middle East as part of the same expanded agreement, though specifics there remain even further out. With Europe's first named cities still to be revealed, the real test of this announcement will come once actual vehicles start appearing on the streets — something both companies say is still a matter of months, not years, away.