About James Peng
James Peng, cofounder and CEO of Pony.ai, discussed the company's progress and challenges in scaling robotaxis in a July 2026 interview. He stated that autonomous driving has taken a decade to commercialize and that while the industry has moved from "zero to one" and "one to five," significant hurdles remain from "five to 10" and "10 to 100." Peng said data is important but "not everything," comparing it to practice sets in learning math. He described his main role as managing the complexity of the system—hardware, software, safety, regulation, user acceptance, and cost reduction—and identifying weak links to improve. At the MOVE 2026 conference in June, Peng said he sees more similarities than differences in how regulators across cities approach robotaxis, with common concerns around safety, impact on existing mobility systems, and data security. He noted that Europe, with over 500 million people, is a strategic focus for Pony.ai, though expansion there will be gradual. Peng also said he does not view AI as a "secret weapon" but as a general tool for high-tech development.
Transcript (24 segments)
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Eve Stevens0:06
Hi there, I'm Eve Stevens, editor of movement.net and I'm here at Move 2026 speaking to some of the inspiring voices leading conversations in automotive and technology. And I had the pleasure of being joined today by James Pang, co-founder and CEO of Pony AI. Firstly, thanks so much for joining us today, James. How has your move experience been so far?
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James Peng0:27
Yeah, thanks for having me. The experience at Move so far so good. It's actually my third time in a row. Every year I come here it's always very exciting. A lot of people in the mobility industry congregate here together. It's always great.
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Eve Stevens0:49
Absolutely. Yes, a familiar face. In terms of industry events like these, what do you see as the importance of these kind of collaborative events? Why speak at Move?
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James Peng0:59
I think it's a very convenient place because a lot of our partners, potential partners, the people in the mobility industry all come here together. So it's very easy to organize one-on-one meetings, group chats and all that. And also having all this display and exhibitions, it's a way for us to actually see what's happening right now in the mobility industry. So it's great.
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Eve Stevens1:29
Absolutely. And having some of the vehicles on show as well, it's really great to see the sort of tangible auto tech. So, I want to talk now about Pony AI. Obviously, AI is in the title itself. I had the pleasure of catching your keynote appearance where you spoke about robo taxi services now in Zagreb, in the Middle East and also in Singapore. You have over 2,000 vehicles as I believe. Can you tell us a little bit about how advances in AI have really allowed you to kind of expand and scale up your robo taxi services?
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James Peng2:02
I think AI is preeminent in many parts of our system, right? For example, we use world model for the training and the simulation of our technology which is advanced AI technology for the physical AI. We use advanced language model for the perception and also language model for interacting with the riders. And of course we use AI coding for development and all that. So I think AI is really a secret weapon, but AI becomes a general tool for all the high-tech developments.
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Eve Stevens2:41
Yes, absolutely. And when it comes to scaling up robo taxi fleets, whether it be here in Europe or further afield, what do you see as maybe the most or the biggest challenge? What's the kind of biggest headwind when it comes to scaling up this technology?
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James Peng2:53
I think the biggest, well, I wouldn't say it's one factor. The biggest challenge is the complexity, right? There's hardware, software, technology, safety, regulation, user acceptance, cost reduction and all this. So it's really how we manage the complexity of the system and constantly find the weak link and improve it. So that's really the main job of me lately, to have a systematic view of all the moving pieces and make sure they're moving along.
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Eve Stevens3:31
Absolutely. And what about the fact that you're operating across so many different localities? You're obviously dealing with a patchwork of regulation. How do you find dealing with the regulatory differences between these different geographies?
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James Peng3:44
I think I see more similarities than the differences, right? Generally, regulators care about similar things: safety, the impact to the existing mobility system, what happens to the local taxi and ride-hailing platforms, potential job impact and all that. Of course data security, data privacy and all that. So those are the similarities but depending on different cities, the emphasis on which factor will be different. For example, in a much bigger city they probably care more about the impact on the local existing mobility systems. Whereas in Europe, probably data privacy and data security are more important on their minds. So slightly different but I see more similarities.
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Eve Stevens4:41
Brilliant. Yeah, absolutely. And I want to kind of dwell on that a little bit more. When we think about robo taxis, it kind of seems part of a much bigger ecosystem of mobility. Where do you see robo taxis falling into that ecosystem? Do you see this as a hybrid network or do you see this as a full transition?
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James Peng4:59
I think it will be a hybrid network for many years to come. Because customers demand is very diverse. People use robo taxis. I think the advantages are several fold. One is much safer. It's consistent. All the drivers are exactly consistent. I mean our virtual driver is much cleaner. It's reliable. But some people still prefer human drivers because if you want a driver to help you with the luggage, we don't have a robot yet. Maybe we're developing it soon. But for the time being, I think it's going to be coexisting.
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Eve Stevens5:44
Yeah, absolutely. And building on that, obviously robo taxis bring a host of ethical questions. How do you maybe counter conversations about job displacement? How are you making sure that the drivers are still kind of centered in this transition?
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James Peng5:59
I think first and foremost, we're coexisting. We're not replacing all the drivers. We will be an important complement to the existing shared mobility. Second, we are actually hiring for the operations of the fleet. For example, the remote assistance, the servicing and the maintenance crews and all that. So some of the taxi drivers can be transformed into other roles. And overall, I think it will be a gradual process and society as a whole always has a way to absorb jobs.
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Eve Stevens6:42
Yeah, absolutely. And I think whenever a new technology emerges, there's always a kind of evolution of the jobs that exist. And as you said, we'll begin to see other roles kind of popping up.
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James Peng6:51
Creating new jobs.
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Eve Stevens6:53
Absolutely. So you've obviously launched an autonomous vehicle testing program in Luxembourg alongside partners Bolt and Stellantis. What do you see as the key benefit then of building these strategic partnerships? Why collaborate with others in this quest?
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James Peng7:08
Because the whole mobility ecosystem is a complex one, not for autonomous driving per se, right? For the existing taxi services, it's already a lot of partners, right? There are taxi companies, vehicle partners, local servicing companies. So we sort of tag along ourselves in the existing ecosystem. And also I think local partners are important for building trust from the local residents and also great government relationship. So I think the partners for the local operation and support is absolutely essential.
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Eve Stevens7:49
Absolutely. And that's what MOVE is all about. Collaboration is definitely key. I want to touch then on the commercial robo taxi service that you have in Zagreb, obviously the first in Europe. Congratulations there with partners Vern and Uber. You've been expanding really aggressively across lots of different localities, obviously Europe. Where then is your next focal point for expansion? Do you have somewhere in mind that you can tell us about?
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James Peng8:13
I think Europe in general is a great market to be in. It's a 500 million plus population, economy is booming. So definitely we'll find a way to gradually, it's not going to happen overnight, gradually launch into more markets in Europe. Although which one to tackle first, there's a lot of factors that we need to consider. But gradually we want to definitely treat the European market as a strategic focus.
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Eve Stevens8:47
Yeah. And I think we're beginning to see Europe really coming into its own when it comes to autonomy. But obviously here in London, we have this real inflection point when it comes to robo taxis. So yeah, it will be really exciting to see how that progresses. Just as we move then into our last kind of minutes here, what's on the agenda for you at Move? What are you looking forward to in the rest of the show?
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James Peng9:06
Again, I think it's a great event for all the relevant people in the mobility industry to come here. So I actually have a pretty packed schedule today with talking to many generous partners and potential partners. So it's a great event.
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Eve Stevens9:25
Yeah, I know already that you're in very high demand. So thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us. That's about all we have time for, but I really hope you enjoy the rest of the show and hopefully we'll see you again next year.
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James Peng9:35
Yeah, thank you for having me.