Pony.ai CEO James Peng Discusses Robotaxi Scaling and Global Expansion at MOVE London 2026
Pony.ai CEO James Peng said the company's robotaxi fleet is approaching 2,000 vehicles and emphasized that regulation is the key bottleneck to scaling up to a target of 50,000.
- approaching 2,000
- 50,000
- 85 million km
What Happened
Pony.ai founder and CEO James Peng participated in a fireside chat at MOVE London 2026, discussing the company's progress in scaling fully driverless robotaxi services. The session, moderated by Michael Dean of Bloomberg Intelligence, took place on June 17 at ExCeL London. Peng highlighted that Pony.ai's robotaxi fleet is approaching 2,000 vehicles, with fully driverless commercial operations in four Chinese cities: Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Shanghai. The company is also expanding internationally, with trials or services in Singapore, Dubai, Doha, Seoul, Luxembourg, and Zagreb.
“We are waiting for one thing to get ready: regulation. Once regulation is there, I think the scalability path will be exponential.”
approaching 2,000vehicles
Fully driverless robotaxis in commercial use across four Tier-1 Chinese cities.
50,000vehicles
Medium- to long-term objective.
below USD 33,000
Target cost for the 2027 model in China.
Why this matters
The fireside chat signals that autonomous mobility is moving from technology validation to commercial deployment, with Pony.ai expanding driverless services in China and internationally, but regulatory uncertainty remains the main hurdle.
Terms in This Story
- Robotaxi
- A self-driving taxi that operates without a human driver.
- Fully driverless
- A vehicle operating with no human driver onboard, using autonomous driving technology.
- Virtual Driver
- Pony.ai's term for its autonomous driving system that replaces the human driver.
- Tier-1 cities
- The largest and most economically developed cities in China, such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.
Summarised from the linked release; details can be imperfect — always verify against the original source.