Pony.ai CFO Leo Wang on Robotaxi Unit Economics, Europe and What Comes Next

Pony.ai co-founder and CFO Leo Wang joined host and Ride AI editor-in-chief Sophia Tung on the Ride AI podcast to explain what it takes to scale Robotaxi from technology into a sustainable transportation service. He said the company has reached unit economics breakeven in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, is continuing to expand its Gen-7 fleet, and is seeing strong growth in paid Robotaxi services. Wang also described how fleet scale, vehicle density, continued cost reduction and AI-driven development could support the next stage of growth, and shared his view on where the industry is heading over the next six to 12 months.

Wang said safety becomes an even bigger challenge as a Robotaxi fleet scales, because deploying significantly more vehicles means safety performance has to keep improving even when incident probability is already very low. That means addressing the remaining corner cases, and deciding which ones to prioritize in a particular operating environment for the greatest safety gain. Traditionally that analysis could require many people reviewing data and identifying where engineering resources should go, but Pony.ai believes AI can increasingly identify weaknesses, prioritize the most relevant scenarios and guide further iteration. He said that is an important part of PonyWorld 2.0, which allows the company to improve the technology without scaling human QA resources at the same rate as the fleet.

In overseas markets Wang said Pony.ai's role is clear: it provides the AI driver. A complete Robotaxi service needs autonomous driving technology, access to rider demand, and local fleet operations such as vehicle maintenance, cleaning and charging, and those roles can be handled by different partners in a two-party or three-party structure, with ride-hailing platforms supplying users and existing taxi or fleet operators bringing vehicles, depots and operational infrastructure. He said the fully driverless test rides with Verne in Zagreb showed the technology can operate in older European districts where roads are more congested, with more cyclists and a mix of old and new infrastructure. That experience and safety mileage, he said, laid the groundwork for larger opportunities including the plan with Uber to deploy more than 2,000 Robotaxis across Europe, and he expects the industry's scaling to accelerate over the next six to 12 months as riders move from trying a Robotaxi once or twice to using it as a regular service.