Pony.ai hits first GAAP profit, launches Europe’s first robotaxi

Pony.ai has reported its first-ever quarterly GAAP-level net profit for Q4 2025, and announced the launch of Europe’s first commercial robotaxi service in Croatia through a partnership with Uber and local startup Verne. Under the arrangement, Pony.ai will supply the autonomous driving technology, Verne operates the fleet of BAIC robotaxis, and Uber integrates the service into its global ride-hailing platform alongside Verne’s own app. On-road testing in Zagreb is already under way.

The quarterly profit was partially driven by a windfall from an early strategic investment rather than core robotaxi operations, and the full-year picture remains a net loss—narrowed 72% to US$76.8m on revenue of US$90m. Robotaxi revenue nonetheless grew 160% year-on-year in the quarter to US$6.7m, with fare-based revenue surging more than 500%, reflecting the company’s acceleration of paid operations in China. 

Thus far the robotaxi firm has reported profitable operations in two Chinese cities, Guangzhou in November 2025, and Shenzhen at the beginning of March 2026. In the latter city, it reported an average of 23 daily rides completed and a daily net revenue of CN¥394 (US$57) per vehicle. Its total fleet size has passed 1,400 vehicles and is targeted to hit 3,000 before the year’s end.

In a statement, Chief Executive James Peng described the ability to achieve scale across multiple key metrics, and the validation of unit economics in multiple tier-one Chinese cities as the company’s most important 2025 milestones. Peng went on to frame 2026 as a year of momentum-building: “We will accelerate top-line growth at a faster speed, scale up fleet size to over 3,000, and expand operational areas to deploy robotaxis in more than 20 cities globally.”

“To achieve these goals, we will employ a dual-engine strategy, together with the joint deployment model, to accelerate our top-line growth momentum in both domestic and overseas markets,” he continued. On the international front, Pony.ai launched robotaxi services in Singapore, Qatar and UAE in March alone. For overseas deployments, the Uber partnership provides a distribution infrastructure that would otherwise take years to build independently. 

Uber, for its part, has now signed autonomous vehicle partnerships with nearly two dozen companies across multiple use case categories including robotaxis and autonomous freight transit, treating its platform as a network layer for whatever autonomous technology scales fastest rather than backing a single operator. The most recent addition to its network of autonomy partners, before Pony.ai, was Rivian. The two plan to deploy 10,000 fully-autonomous R2 SUVs beginning in 2028; according to the automaker as many as 50,000 vehicles may be delivered under the partnership. 

Beyond BAIC, Pony.ai’s primary robotaxi partner is actually Toyota, which will supply 1,000 adapted bZ4X vehicles for joint deployment in 2026. This model underpins the Gen-7 mass production ramp. The company is also deepening integrations with WeChat’s mobility platform in China and working with GAC alongside BAIC to leverage their supply chains and after-sales networks for overseas deployments.