As earnings season arrives, the Robotaxi sector, crowded with tech giants from both domestic and international markets, naturally draws significant attention. The results show that this industry still has some distance to go before becoming profitable, whether it's overseas players like Waymo and Tesla Motors, or domestic companies like Baidu's Apollo Go, Pony AI Inc, and WeRide - all remain in a capital-intensive foundation-building phase.

While none of these companies have started generating profits yet, the industry is beginning to show differentiation. Those Robotaxi companies that have started accepting orders and integrating into ordinary consumers' daily lives are receiving more favor in capital markets. For instance, Pony AI Inc, which disclosed a 300% surge in passenger fare revenue in its financial report released on August 12, was subsequently targeted by Cathie Wood's ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF the following day, purchasing approximately $12.9 million worth of shares.

Various signs indicate that the Robotaxi industry's turning point is approaching.

**Trillion-Dollar Market Built Order by Order**

The prospects of the Robotaxi sector need no elaborate description. According to Morgan Stanley's forecast, the global autonomous vehicle market will reach $200 billion by 2030. Additionally, Barclays reports that the next five years will be an explosive period for the Robotaxi industry, particularly in the Chinese market, which has advantages in per-vehicle manufacturing costs and richer demand.

Against this backdrop, the market is no longer satisfied with Robotaxi companies' promotion of their technology, investments, or even road testing progress. No amount of talk compares to actually starting to accept orders. This is precisely why Tesla Motors' Robotaxi recently ignited industry excitement. Despite only having 10 Robotaxis in operation on the first day in Austin, Texas, and despite each ride generating only $4.2 in revenue, simply proving that Robotaxis can start accepting orders added hundreds of billions to Tesla Motors' market value in a single day.

"By the end of the year, regular Americans will be able to enjoy Robotaxi services," Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk recently stated.

Looking across the industry, the Robotaxi sector currently has two revenue models - collecting passenger fares from the C-end, and selling technology solutions or complete Robotaxi vehicles to the B-end. Pony AI Inc's Robotaxi business represents the former C-end model.

Pony AI Inc's latest financial report shows the company's Q2 2025 revenue reached 154 million yuan, up 75.9% year-over-year, with Robotaxi business revenue of 10.9 million yuan, and passenger fare revenue increasing over 300% year-over-year.

Regarding the impressive C-end business performance, Pony AI Inc attributes it to steady growth in their Robotaxi fleet and expanded user coverage, along with rising demand from first-tier city users. The company's Robotaxi fleet currently exceeds 500 vehicles, with an average of 15 daily orders per autonomous vehicle. Company founder and CEO Peng Jun stated that the fleet size will double to 1,000 vehicles by year-end, better supporting fully autonomous paid Robotaxi operations in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.

As a startup company, Pony AI Inc doesn't have the backing of large corporations like Waymo or Apollo Go, yet has still validated the feasibility of large-scale Robotaxi operations within limited resources. Perhaps this is why it has gained recognition from capital markets, including the international leading investment institutions mentioned above.

**The Second Half of Robotaxi**

If completing autonomous driving technology accumulation and achieving fully autonomous driving at the technical level represents the first half of Robotaxi development, then from now on, how to more quickly and effectively integrate Robotaxi transportation services into consumers' daily lives represents the second half.

China is poised to become the global commercial demonstration zone for Robotaxi services.

On one hand, China's autonomous driving market has enormous capacity. According to Goldman Sachs research, over the next 10 years, the domestic autonomous driving market is expected to grow approximately 757 times to 340 billion yuan, becoming the world's largest Robotaxi transportation market.

On the other hand, from the perspectives of cost, technology, service, regulation, and market acceptance, China has relatively advanced environmental support, allowing the Robotaxi industry to step directly into the 1.0 phase.

Meanwhile, Chinese consumers' high acceptance of Robotaxi services will also accelerate industry development. Although Robotaxi is still in the promotion phase, keywords like "autonomous driving" and "Robotaxi" have attracted significant attention on platforms like Douyin and Xiaohongshu. For instance, Apollo Go and Pony AI Inc Robotaxis providing shuttle services at the recent 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference attracted many online spectators and likes.

It can be expected that Robotaxi will roll out domestically at unimaginable speed and expand to overseas markets. Currently, Robotaxi has begun commercial operations with paid services in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Chongqing, and other cities. The number of cities with services and order volumes continue to rise, with commercial scale growing rapidly.

As domestic autonomous driving platforms and vehicle architectures upgrade, achieving breakthroughs in both technological advancement and cost control, this pace will accelerate further.

Over the past two years, Baidu, Pony AI Inc, and Didi have all released mass-production Robotaxi models. Taking Pony AI Inc's latest seventh-generation Robotaxi as an example, the vehicle uses 100% automotive-grade components, with autonomous driving kit costs reduced by 70% compared to the previous generation.

Of course, this won't be a lightning war. Fortunately, everyone's current cash flow remains relatively healthy. Taking two listed Robotaxi companies as examples, as of Q2 2025, WeRide held 5.885 billion yuan in cash and time deposits, while Pony AI Inc held 5.356 billion yuan in cash equivalents and short-to-long-term financial investments.

With balance sheet funds still healthy, industry peers can do much more: continuous iteration and optimization of autonomous driving technology, ongoing cost reduction for Robotaxi vehicles, improving the ratio of remote supervisors to autonomous vehicles, expanding fleet size (through asset-light or asset-heavy approaches), and more.

The Robotaxi market is estimated to be large enough and sufficient for different companies to grow and strengthen together. The vast trillion-dollar market begins with each transportation order placed today.