Estonian ride-hailing and mobility unicorn Bolt has announced it’s partnering with Guangzhou-headquartered tech company Pony AI to bring autonomous cars to Europe.
This partnership will bring Pony AI`s Level 4 autonomous driving technology — in which a vehicle can manage most driving situations without human intervention and doesn’t require a safety driver to be present — into Bolt’s existing fleet.
The partnership will initially focus on real-world testing, safety validation, and experience design to provide fully autonomous, driverless capability. It will target cities for deployments in EU countries and in non-EU European countries.
Outside of China, Pony AI has been granted testing permits in Luxembourg since April this year, where it also has its European hub for research and development.
Bolt's ambition is to be one of the first platforms to provide fully driverless autonomous vehicles in the EU. The mobility startup aims to do this within a year of its first deployments, which are planned for 2026, according to CEO and co-founder Markus Villig.
Lack of AV investments in Europe
Founded in 2013 in Estonia, Bolt currently operates in over 50 countries and 600 cities, providing shared mobility services to more than 200 million customers. In 2024, the company hit €2bn in revenue, with 80% from ride-hailing, but with net losses just above €100m.
Villig told Sifted last year that autonomous driving technology could increase Bolt’s business by 100 times. However, in an interview with Sifted last week, he also expressed concern that investments in autonomous driving in Europe are falling behind.
“Self-driving or physical AI in the real world is going to be as revolutionary as AI in the digital world. But the EU is paying zero attention to that at the moment. And it's a massive risk.
“About 10% of the EU's economy is involved in making cars. And if we miss this wave, we're not going to have our own self-driving car capabilities in Europe. It's going to be a disaster,” he says.
Leveraging lobbying efforts
China has invested heavily in EVs (electric vehicles) as well as in autonomous driving. Between 2009 and 2023, the Chinese government invested over $230bn in subsidies for the sector, according to reports.
According to a statement, Pony AI has already logged 55m kilometres of on-road testing for its L4 domain controller and has 720 robotaxis. It is the only autonomous taxi service operating commercially in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen.
Its European counterparts have not come as far. The closest is UK autonomous driving startup Wayve, which in June announced a partnership with Uber to launch public-road trials of fully autonomous vehicles in London.
“Of course, as a European, I would like it [the AV partner] to come from Europe,” Villig says. That would be fantastic for us. But if it comes from China or the US, we're equally happy to work with them. Anybody who wants to deploy their cars into Europe would benefit from our network and our customers.”
Countries like the UK, which has a special permit regime, are seen to have a favourable approach to AV regulation. There are also Level‑4 autonomous vehicle pilot programmes running, or planned, in cities across Germany, France and Switzerland.
The partnership between Bolt and Pony AI is expected to strengthen the AV tech startup’s presence in Europe by leveraging Bolt’s footprint across the continent and its regulatory expertise.
Influencing regulation is something Bolt has invested heavily in, both at the local level and at the European level. As of December last year, Bolt had almost 50 employees working on regulations in a lobbying capacity.
“At least in Estonia and on the European level, it works really well. We've had a lot of success influencing the way these EU regulations go,” Villig says.
