Pony.ai, the NASDAQ-listed Chinese autonomous driving company, signed a strategic cooperation agreement with South Korean autonomous driving firm FutureLink on August 28 to bring up to 200 robotaxis to Seoul, with commercial service targeted as early as 20281.
The deal covers the introduction of Pony.ai's 7th-generation (Gen-7) robotaxi, which the companies plan to operate as a fully unmanned commercial service across Seoul. The signing ceremony took place at the Conrad Hotel in Yeouido, Seoul, with Pony.ai Chairman James Peng and FutureLink CEO Doowon Cha executing the agreement.
The rollout will begin with 10 vehicles brought to Korea for national certification, followed by deployment of an additional 190 units. The companies expect the full 200-vehicle fleet could begin official service after certification and regulatory procedures are completed.
Pony.ai's Gen-7 robotaxi is built on a vehicle platform designed specifically for autonomous driving and uses a dual-redundancy structure for braking, steering, and power supply at the mass-production stage. The company has been driving down costs aggressively: in its Q1 2025 earnings announcement, Pony.ai said the Gen-7 autonomous driving kit's component cost is 70% lower than the previous generation. In Q3 2025 results, the company outlined plans to cut Gen-7 kit cost by an additional 20% for 2026 production. In its Q1 2026 earnings statement, Pony.ai set a goal of lowering total vehicle cost to less than 230,000 yuan for the Chinese market by mid-2027.
FutureLink has already been conducting autonomous driving demonstration projects in Gangnam, Seoul, using retrofitted vehicles equipped with Pony.ai's autonomous driving development kits, accumulating approximately 80,000 kilometers of driving distance. Under the new agreement, FutureLink will be responsible for optimizing the Gen-7 system for Korean roads and regulations.
Pony.ai has surpassed a cumulative global robotaxi driving distance of 70 million kilometers. James Peng said the company recently announced plans to operate more than 4,000 units globally, including in Europe and the Middle East, and that the Korean market is separate from that 4,000-unit plan. If the FutureLink partnership proves successful, Peng said Pony.ai's goal is to deploy vehicles at scale in Korea, expanding beyond the initial 200 vehicles.
On data privacy, Pony.ai said all personal and location information would be stored in Korea if its robotaxis are deployed in Seoul, and that sensitive data such as faces and license plate numbers would be fully anonymized before storage.
James Peng and FutureLink Chairman Kyung-pil Nam, a former Gyeonggi Province Governor, agreed to establish regular executive-team meetings to facilitate the service introduction. FutureLink and Pony.ai also indicated plans for a joint venture2.
ANALYSIS The Seoul deployment would mark Pony.ai's first disclosed commercial robotaxi operation in a major OECD capital outside China, adding a new geographic front to a global expansion that already spans Europe and the Middle East. The Gen-7 cost trajectory, from a 70% reduction over the prior generation to a further 20% cut in 2026 production, positions the platform to compete on unit economics in markets where labor costs for human drivers are substantially higher than in China.