Uber and Pony.ai plan more than 2,000 robotaxis across Europe

What the partnership will deploy

Uber and Pony.ai said on August 14, 2026 that they will deploy more than 2,000 robotaxis across Europe under an expanded partnership, layering the fleet onto an existing commercial service in Zagreb, Croatia and extending it into four additional European cities. The companies also said they intend to explore joint operations in the Middle East, though no specifics were disclosed. Uber will handle bookings, payments and customer service through its platform, while Pony.ai will contribute its SAE Level 4-certified autonomous driving system and operational experience from running paid, fully driverless services in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Local partners will be used to finance vehicles and handle day-to-day fleet operations, following the model already in place with Verne in Zagreb.

What is still unknown

The announcement left key details unresolved. Pony.ai gave no timeline for when the more than 2,000 robotaxis would actually reach European roads, and the four cities beyond Zagreb were not named. Specifics of the planned Middle East expansion were similarly undisclosed. The companies noted that rollout in each market will depend on regulatory approval, a variable that has held back several autonomous-driving programs in Europe even as China has pushed large-scale commercialization.

How the model fits Uber's wider autonomous push

For Uber, the expansion extends a partnership-led approach in which outside technology providers supply the self-driving stack while Uber supplies the demand side. The platform processed $58 billion in gross bookings in the second quarter of 2026, with $25 billion paid to its 10.2 million drivers, the single largest line on Uber's cost base; shifting miles to autonomous partners is intended to redirect a portion of that spend toward Uber's own margins. Uber has signaled that cities hosting autonomous vehicles could roughly double to 15 by the end of 2026, supported by roughly $10 billion the company has earmarked for autonomous partners over the next few years. Monthly active platform consumers grew 16% year-over-year and trips rose 18%, with delivery now accounting for more than a third of total sales and growing revenue 28% year-over-year against 1% growth in transportation.

Competitive scale and unresolved risks

Pony.ai and Uber are entering a field where scale is already established elsewhere. Alphabet's Waymo completes more than 500,000 paid autonomous trips across 11 US cities every week, a volume Uber's partner network has yet to match in any market. Uber's model also depends on partners continuing to deliver rides at scale and on schedule, and the roughly $10 billion earmarked for partners assumes that execution. Without a timeline, named cities or regulatory clearances, the European target remains a stated ambition rather than a confirmed rollout.