Autonomous automobile startup Pony.ai has been awarded a allow in Guangzhou to function 100 robotaxis as conventional taxis. The license, which permits Pony to cost for rides in its autonomous automobiles, signifies one other step on the trail to commercializing autonomous ride-hail automobiles in China.
WeRide, one among Pony’s rivals in China, has been working a partnered service with Guangzhou’s government-backed taxi group Baiyun since 2019, which has given the corporate an early mover benefit on the trail to commercialization. Nonetheless, this is said to be the primary time China has rolled out a taxi license devoted to an autonomous ride-hail fleet, with out the necessity to accomplice up with a standard taxi operator. The license additionally topics Pony’s fleets to the identical guidelines that regulate conventional human-operated cabs.
“The inclusion of autonomous automobiles within the unified and standardized administration of taxis proves that each authorities coverage and the general public are more and more accepting robotaxis as a type of on a regular basis transportation, recognizing the experience expertise and technical stability of Pony.ai’s robotaxi,” mentioned Tiancheng Lou, co-founder and chief expertise officer of Pony.ai in a press release.
Pony, which final month introduced an undisclosed increase that introduced the corporate’s valuation as much as $8.5 billion, will start charging fares within the Nansha District of Guangzhou in Might, an 800 sq. kilometer port area in the course of the nation’s tech-driven Higher Bay Space. Passengers will have the ability to hail a experience and pay via the PonyPilot+ App between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 p.m., with fares primarily based on “commonplace taxi pricing in Guangzhou,” in line with Pony.
The corporate didn’t reply to requests for details about what kind of automobiles might be included in its fleet, however pictures Pony shared with Avisionews show a Lexus outfitted with Pony’s sensor suite.
Every experience will initially have a human security driver within the entrance seat, though Pony has said its intention to take away the motive force “over the quick to intermediate timeframe.” It is a daring objective, for no metropolis authorities in China has formally allowed undrivered robotaxis to chauffeur passengers round. Even when Pony is ready to take away the motive force, it’s onerous to think about such a service might be allowed to function on Guangzhou’s busy downtown within the quick run.
Pony mentioned it intends to regularly broaden the size and scope of its service to different areas of the town, however didn’t specify when.
“To qualify for the license, Pony.ai needed to move stringent security and different multifaceted automobile qualification exams set forth by nationwide inspection establishments, resembling having at the least 24 months of [autonomous driving (AD)] testing in China and/or different nations, at the least 1 million kilometers of testing mileage, at the least 200,000 kilometers of AD testing inside Guangzhou’s designated take a look at space, and no involvement in any energetic legal responsibility visitors accidents,” the corporate mentioned in a press release.
In California, the place Pony was testing its driverless capabilities, the corporate lately needed to challenge a recall of its autonomous driving software program following a crash in October, which led to the California Division of Motor Autos suspending the corporate’s driverless allow.
Guangzhou isn’t the primary metropolis Pony has charged for robotaxis in. The corporate, together with Baidu’s autonomous driving service, acquired a allow in Beijing final November to cost passengers inside a small suburban pilot zone.
Pony can be testing autonomous automobiles in Shanghai and Shenzhen, in addition to Fremont and Irvine in California. The corporate mentioned it has accomplished greater than 700,000 rides as of mid-April, though it’s seemingly that almost all of these rides occurred in China.
If commercialization in Guangzhou and Beijing is profitable, Pony intends to broaden its commercialized robotaxi footprint to 2 different main Chinese language cities subsequent 12 months, with additional enlargement deliberate for 2024 and 2025, the corporate mentioned. Pony didn’t reply to requests for extra clarification, or whether or not it has utilized for deployment permits in California.
The corporate had supposed to go public in New York via a SPAC merger final 12 months, however these plans have been reportedly placed on maintain after the corporate failed to realize assurances from the Chinese language authorities that it wouldn’t change into a goal of a crackdown towards Chinese language tech corporations.
Correction: A earlier model of this text said a software program defect prompted three crashes. There was one crash. The defect was present in three of Pony.ai’s automobiles.
