Uber and autonomous vehicle company Pony.ai announced plans to bring 2,000 self-driving taxis to Europe, expanding their partnership beyond its initial deployment in Zagreb, Croatia. The robotaxis will operate in four additional European cities as part of the companies' broadening collaboration in autonomous ride-hailing services.
The expansion represents a significant scale-up of autonomous vehicle operations in Europe, where regulatory frameworks for self-driving cars vary across countries. The partnership between Uber, the ride-hailing giant, and Pony.ai, a Chinese-American autonomous driving technology company, first launched robotaxi services in Zagreb as a test market for European operations.
The deployment of 2,000 vehicles across five cities marks one of the larger commitments to autonomous taxi services in Europe to date. Robotaxis combine self-driving technology with traditional ride-hailing platforms, allowing passengers to request rides through apps like Uber while being transported by vehicles without human drivers. The specific four additional cities where the robotaxis will operate have not been disclosed.
Pony.ai has been developing autonomous driving technology since its founding and has tested vehicles in the United States and China. The company has focused on building partnerships with established mobility platforms rather than launching its own consumer-facing services. Uber, meanwhile, sold its own autonomous vehicle development unit in 2020 and has since pursued partnerships with third-party autonomous vehicle companies to offer self-driving rides on its platform.
The expansion comes as autonomous vehicle companies work to prove the commercial viability of robotaxi services. While several companies have launched limited autonomous taxi operations in specific cities, scaling these services to thousands of vehicles across multiple markets remains a challenge. The European deployment will test whether the technology can operate reliably across different urban environments and regulatory jurisdictions.