Pony.ai is planning to extend its robotaxi service to more Chinese cities, including Beijing, as the self-driving startup expands its operations.
The self-driving company currently operates robotaxi fleets in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, and California, USA.
On Wednesday, Vice-President Zhang Ning said, The expansion of our robotaxi service would help us develop our technology and accelerate our efforts toward large-scale driverless fleets.
Pony.ai is testing on public roads in five cities across China and the United States, covering a total of 5 million kilometers.
Apart from commercial vehicles, the company has been dabbling in the autonomous truck market since 2018.
Its truck division was established in 2020, and it recently received approval to test its self-driving trucks in Guangdong province. On Wednesday, Pony.ai unveiled its truck company brand Ponytron.
China's road freight totaled 33.8 billion metric tons in 2020, according to estimates, and there were more than 30 million truck drivers on the roads every day.
We have been exploring how to empower and transform the logistics industry with autonomous driving technology, Li Hengyu, head of Pony.ai's truck division, said.
Pony.ai, which was formed in 2016, had raised over $1.1 billion from investors including Toyota by the end of March, valuing the company at $5.3 billion.
The Chinese government is also encouraging self-driving vehicles. China expects 50 percent of domestically produced NEVs sold in 2025 to have Level 2 or Level 3 autonomous functions, according to a blueprint published in 2020. By 2030, the percentage would have risen to 70%.
Authorities in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, unveiled a legal draft earlier this month proposing to allow both conditional and fully autonomous vehicles to operate on the city's highways, not only for testing but also for business trials.
