What happened in China Pony.ai launched PonyWorld 2.0, a self-improving physical AI engine for autonomous driving, and almost simultaneously announced the launch of Europe's first commercial robotaxi service in Zagreb, Croatia, on April 8, 2026. These two moves are not separate stories. They are two parts of the same strategic statement. The Zagreb launch confirmed that Pony.ai is no longer a China-only operator feeling its way toward international markets. It is an operationally active player on European roads, backed by a deepened strategic partnership with Toyota, a partnership with Stellantis to accelerate autonomous mobility across Europe, and a fleet of Toyota Sienna Level 4 autonomous vehicles running on NVIDIA's AI compute platform. Pony.ai is also targeting 3,000 robotaxis across more than 20 cities in 2026 — a deployment ambition that dwarfs anything currently on the table from a European competitor. PonyWorld 2.0 is the engine underneath all of it.…