Pony.ai has been granted a permit in Guangzhou to operate 100 robotaxis as traditional taxis. Pony has a license that allows it to charge for rides in its self-drive vehicles.
WeRide, one of Pony's competitors in China, has been running a partnership with Guangzhou's Baiyun taxi group, giving the company an early advantage on the path to commercialization. This is the first time that China has rolled out a taxi license that is dedicated to ride-hail, without the need to partner up with a traditional taxi operator. Pony's fleets are subject to the same rules that regulate traditional human-operated cabs.
The inclusion of self-drive vehicles in the management of taxis proves that both government policy and the public are willing to accept robotaxis as a form of everyday transportation.
Pony, which last month announced an undisclosed raise that brought the company's valuation up to $8.5 billion, will begin charging fares in the middle of the country in May. Passengers will be able to hail a ride and pay through the PonyPilot+ App between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 p.m.
The company did not respond to requests for information about what type of vehicles will be included in its fleet, but Pony shared photos of a Lexus with Pony's sensor suite.
Pony wants to remove the human safety driver from the front seat over a short period of time. Even if Pony is able to remove the driver, it's hard to imagine that the service will be allowed to operate on Guangzhou's busy downtown.
Pony said it intends to gradually expand the scale and scope of its service to other areas of the city.
Pony.ai had to pass stringent safety and other vehicle qualification tests set forth by national inspection institutions, such as having at least 24 months of testing in China and/or other countries, to be eligible for the license.
The California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended the company's permit after it had to issue a recall of its self driving software following a crash.
Guangzhou isn't the first city to charge for robotaxis. The company received a permit in Beijing last November to charge passengers within a small suburban pilot zone.
Pony is testing self-drive vehicles in China, as well as in California and Shenzhen. The company said it has completed more than one million rides, but it's likely that most of them occurred in China.
Pony intends to expand its footprint to two other major Chinese cities next year if commercialization in Guangzhou and Beijing is successful, with further expansion planned for 2024 and 2025. Pony didn't respond to requests for more clarification or if it had applied for deployment permits in California.
The company had intended to go public in New York through a SPAC merger, but those plans were put on hold after the company failed to gain assurances from the Chinese government that it wouldn't become a target of a crackdown against Chinese tech companies.
A previous version of the article stated that a software defect caused crashes. There was a crash. Three of Pony.ai's vehicles had a defect.
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