Marti Technologies co-founder and CEO Cankut Durgun said Turkey's ride-hailing revenue per kilometer is 3-4x lower than in the US and vehicles cost roughly twice as much after import taxes, so even once driverless cars become economically viable in the US without subsidies, Turkey will need "another maybe 70% to 80% cost reduction from there on a revenue per kilometer basis." Speaking on the Road to Autonomy podcast, he said robotaxis will serve base demand while human drivers absorb peak hours, since peak hourly demand runs about 19 times trough demand and autonomous vehicles would complete 40 to 50 trips per vehicle per day. Marti is signing multiple autonomous-vehicle technology partners (Tensor, CalmCar, more in talks), self-funding pilot vehicles while weighing three fleet-financing structures, and leaning on the national AI action plan signed by President Erdoğan around September-October 2026. The near-term growth engine remains the ride-hailing marketplace — 584,000 registered drivers today, projected to 1-1.5 million at steady state — alongside parcel delivery and closed-loop payments, not autonomy.