By Supantha Mukherjee STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Estonian ride-hailing company Bolt said on Tuesday it has partnered with Chinese autonomous driving firm Pony.ai as it seeks to add driverless cars to its taxi services in Europe. The companies will first test and validate safety for the fully autonomous, driverless capability before deploying them in various European countries. "Bolt's ambition is to be one of the first platforms to provide fully driverless autonomous vehicles in the EU," CEO Markus Villig told Reuters. "We aim to do this within a year from the first deployments which are planned for 2026," he said. Autonomous driving is dominated by U.S. companies such as Alphabet subsidiary Waymo and Tesla and Chinese competitors including Baidu, WeRide and Pony.ai. Blocked from the U.S. market, Chinese self-driving technology firms are accelerating their push into Europe, setting up headquarters, striking data deals, and road-testing – prompting alarm from local rivals over competition concerns. Last month, Pony.ai signed an agreement with Stellantis to jointly develop and test self-driving vehicles in Europe. Europe's self-driving technology firms are testing their own systems but most European countries do not allow public deployment of anything beyond basic Level 2 systems that require drivers to maintain control at all times. "Half of Europe's markets are practically closed to ride-hailing because many countries haven't issued new operating licenses for professional drivers in decades, despite shortages and huge demand," Villig said. "Europe cannot afford to make the same mistake with autonomous vehicles." (Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm, editing by Terje Solsvik)
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