Pony.ai claims it has become the first automotive vendor to receive a fully driverless permit for autonomous robotaxis in Guangzhou, China.
The permit allows for vehicle passenger transportation in a 310 square mile area in Guangzhou’s Nansha District with consumers able to place orders through the PonyPilot+ app to locations such as high-speed rail stations, subway stops, parks and business and residential districts.
Pony.ai received a taxi license for autonomous vehicles in China that allows the company to operate 100 autonomous vehicles as traditional taxis in Nansha, Guangzhou. The move followed Pony.ai starting to charge fares for autonomous rides in Nansha.
Baidu and Pony.ai are the only two companies in Beijing that previously were allowed to charge for autonomous vehicle ride hailing. However, these rides came with a safety driver.
A tier-1 city
Guangzhou is one of the four so-called tier-1 cities in China and was one of the first cities in China to issue driverless test permits. Pony.ai started driverless testing in Guangzhou in June of 2021 and has gathered two years of data including extreme weather conditions such as rain and thunderstorms, heavy fog and other road scenarios such as narrow roads and intersections.
In total, Pony.ai has accumulated more than 13 million miles of autonomous driving globally, more than 621,000 miles of driverless testing and nearly 200,000 fee-charging robotaxi orders.
Pony.ai’s next generation robotaxi model will be equipment with the company’s sixth generation autonomous software and hardware systems and will be based on the seven-seat Toyota Sienna Autono-MaaS model. These model vehicles will include a safety driver initially but as these vehicles pass safety tests, the company will commence fully driverless robotaxi services in the future.
