The US state of California has granted permission to Chinese firm Pony.ai to carry out a pilot run of its driverless vehicles in three cities in the state. Six Pony’s autonomous vehicles will be allowed without a safety driver at the wheels in Fremont, Milpitas, and Irvine, within designated roads in these cities.
The permit was issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles, which is the statutory regulator for issues relating to autonomous vehicle testing on public roads. The new permit is an extension of the earlier permit already granted to Pony.ai since 2017 when it started testing autonomous vehicles with a safety driver behind the wheel in California. The vehicles will operate on roads with speed limits below 45 miles per hour, and testing will commence first in Fremont and Milpitas on weekdays between 10 am and 3 pm, while the city of Irvine will follow suit later.
Some stringent conditions must be met before companies are granted these permits, and any collisions or crashes involving these driverless vehicles must be reported to the regulator within 10 days. In addition, the company will submit an annual report of disengagements to the Department of Motor Vehicles before re-issuance of the permit. There is also the tiny requirement to provide evidence of insurance or a bond of $5 million.
Currently, more than 50 companies have active permits to test autonomous vehicles with a safety driver in different cities in California. Pony.ai joins a growing list of companies that have active permits to test driverless vehicles in California without a safety driver. There are currently eight companies with such permits, including Baidu, AutoX, WeRide, Cruise, Nuro, and Zoox, although only one of these companies (Nuro) has a permit to operate commercial services.
Since 2016 when Pony.ai began operations, it has continued to expand in its scope of operations, attracting investments from important quarters. This has seen the company come out stronger this year as it continues to evolve new partnerships and collaborations with automakers and suppliers. Pony.ai’s agnostic virtual driver system could be applied to vehicles of all sizes and purposes and could provide a revolutionary approach to driverless technology.
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