By Supantha Mukherjee

STOCKHOLM, Nov 25 (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 ( BIDU ), WeRide ( WRD ) 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 ( STLA )

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."