Cofounder, Pony.ai
Pony AI CEO on US operations, Hong Kong IPO plans
James Peng, CEO of autonomous driving company Pony AI, talks about Uber founder Travis Kalanick's possible interest in ...
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 (20 segments)
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Emily0:00
A very good morning to you, James. It is great to have a chance to speak to you. I want to start our discussion with the latest headlines that were announced just a couple days ago with the launch of the Gen 7 robotaxis going into mass production as well as the road testing that is set to begin. Talk us through this latest milestone for the company.
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James Peng0:21
Yes, great. It's great to be here, Emily. So the Gen 7 is the latest generation of our autonomous driving vehicles that we actually launched in Shanghai. Compared with the previous generation, the highlights are that all the components are automotive grade. The total cost is one third of the previous generation. So I think this is the version that we are about to mass produce. The latest progress on the latest generation is that we cooperated closely with Beijing Auto and Guo Auto to launch two versions of this latest generation with the exact same setup on two different vehicles. The first batch of those vehicles, more than a hundred, were already rolled off our assembly line and we obtained licenses for testing in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and in Beijing. So those vehicles will gradually be produced from our assembly line and will be added to our fleet. Compared with the previous generation, it is much cheaper, more integrated, and we will see the economic value of those vehicles will also be much better than the previous generation.
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Emily1:44
Can you share with us this mass production that has begun together with your target for 1,000 robotaxis on the road by 2025? How many do you have on the road now? And to get to 1,000, just kind of talk us through that a little bit.
J
James Peng2:02
Yes. With all the previous generation, we had about 250 vehicles, 200-ish, because we actually retired some of those earlier generation. And for the Gen 7, we have already produced more than 100. Because it took a while to retool the assembly line with the OEMs, and once the assembly line is ready, we start producing them. The first batch of 100 strong have already been produced, and now we are going to just continue producing them, and by the end of the year it will be more than a thousand.
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Emily2:47
All right. So we will of course get an update from you if you are able to hit that target. Now, many headlines coming through in the autonomous driving space. You guys are launching a robotaxi service in Dubai. That is together with the Roads and Transport Authority. You are looking at unmanned commercial operations as early as next year. Why did you pick Dubai?
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James Peng3:09
We are definitely exploring all the other possibilities across the global market because we do see that the mobility demand across the globe is the same and very strong. Dubai turns out to be one of the very friendly governments with a push for supporting autonomous driving. Also, I think in the Emirates, the demand for shared mobility is also strong. So with the government support and strong demand from the users, that has turned out to be a very good market for us to launch the robotaxi fleet. Of course, we are not just looking at Dubai. We are launching a fleet in Luxembourg, we are launching a fleet in South Korea, and we are looking at some other markets as well.
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Emily4:05
And how soon do you expect those to be commercially viable?
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James Peng4:09
I think each market is really different depending on how progressive the local regulations will be. But I think we will see some of the markets be commercially viable in a year or so. Some markets may take a little bit more time, but I think it is always good to be there early to gain close collaboration with the local players and with the local government. Those are really building a strong foundation for commercial applications.
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Emily4:50
So you are already on the road in China. You now have exposure in the Dubai market, Luxembourg, South Korea, Singapore. What other countries, what other cities do you have your eyes on?
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James Peng5:02
I think in general, the criteria, as I already mentioned, is with strong government support, good local partners that are willing to help and work with us, and with strong demand. So across the globe, a lot of markets, many of the cities in Europe, like Southeast Asia, definitely Japan, Korea, of course GCC, the Middle East area are definitely very ripe for launching autonomous driving.
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Emily5:46
Now it is important you said to have partners, and one partnership is that with Uber. Can you tell us in terms of entering which markets, and in the United States, do you expect to be tapping on this Uber partnership to be entering the US market on the road?
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James Peng6:05
No, I think a strong and important partner for autonomous driving is definitely the ride-hailing platform because those are the gateway to the users and also the ride-hailing applications have extensive experience on managing large fleets. Uber definitely is a good partner to have for large scale deployment of autonomous driving fleet. Some of the markets we are working with Uber are in the Middle East. We are exploring potentially collaboration in Europe. But definitely nothing set in stone yet.
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Emily6:46
What about your operations in the United States? Are you able to share what you guys are doing there? And of course with all that is going on geopolitically, what kind of risks are you anticipating for the US market?
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James Peng7:01
For the US market, currently we still, I mean Pony actually was founded in the US, so we still have an operation in the US, still have an office, but the office currently is mainly for R&D purposes, and we currently at least do not have a plan to launch large scale commercial operations in the US yet.
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Emily7:31
Would your US operations be open for a sale? I am seeing a report in the New York Times that Uber and Kalanic could be potentially interested in buying Pony AI's US operations.
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James Peng7:45
No, I think the US is still a very integral part of our whole company. I think everything is possible, depends on what is good for the company and what is good for our shareholders. But again, the mobility demand across the globe is the same. So we are definitely exploring and weighing different options for our operations in different geo markets.
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Emily8:18
I am just going to push this a little bit more. So you are open to selling your US operations?
J
James Peng8:24
I would not say we are open, but if it is a possibility, we might consider.
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Emily8:30
All right. We have been seeing here in the Hong Kong market huge activity in the IPO space. Would Pony AI be open to fundraising and a secondary listing or even a primary listing in the Hong Kong market?
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James Peng8:48
I think the Hong Kong market is very much alive this year and it is a booming market. Again, nothing is set in stone yet, but we are exploring the possibilities because we do see the close proximity to our home market and a lot of the investors would like to have access to a market that is close to our home base. So I think it is a possibility. Again, nothing is set in stone as a corporation. We have to constantly actively explore different probabilities and options. So again, it is nothing set in stone, but it is something we are considering.