Pony.ai has announced a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) to deploy its advanced robotaxi fleet in the region.
Aligned with Dubai’s 2030 Smart City Vision, to transition 25% of the city’s transportation to autonomous mode by 2030, this collaboration will introduce Pony.ai’s autonomous driving technology through a multi-phase rollout. Initially, this rollout will comprise of supervised trials in 2025, followed by fully driverless operations in 2026.
This plan runs parallel with Pony.ai’s own strategy to begin the mass production and deployment of its seventh-generation robotaxis in the second half of 2025. Over the next two years, the company is aiming to scale this fleet further with thousands of vehicles globally. This accelerated timeline, Pony.ai says, is altogether enabled by technological maturity, vehicle engineering, and operational readiness.
The autonomous driving system to be used in this robotaxi fleet features Pony.ai’s latest autonomous driving kit hardware suite, which it says can reduce BOM costs by 70% while meeting various automotive-grade standards. At the same time, the company highlighted that the capabilities of the system’s advanced sensor sensory array will allow it to handle complex scenarios within Dubai, including its high-speed highways and crowded urban areas. The platform-based design enables rapid adaptation across different vehicle types.
In terms of production, Pony.ai has previously detailed collaborations with Toyota, GAC Motor, and BAIC Motor to develop its seventh-generation robotaxis. Mass deployment is slated for later this year following the rollout of this fleet in Shanghai this April.
Following the initial deployment of its Dubai-bound robotaxi fleet, Pony.ai and the Dubai RTA are looking to integrate robotaxi services into the city’s multimodal transport network, which today includes metro, tram, and maritime routes. Here, the partners are jointly aiming for those autonomous vehicles to complement existing infrastructure to enable smoother journeys while reducing the city’s overall carbon footprint.
