Pony.ai Archives - Gizmochina

Pony.ai launches its Robotaxi service in Guangzhou without a safety driver and support for remote assistance

Jed John Ikoba — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 20:45:21 +0000

Pony.ai has announced that it has obtained the first-ever self-driving passenger taxi permit in Guangzhou, China. This will allow the company to run a self-driving ride hailing service that supports remote assistance and omits a safety driver inside the vehicle. The permit was approved on April 21 and allows the company to immediately start a driverless travel service (Robotaxi) in the city. this comes one year after it got a similar license in Beijing.

The new service will allow commuters in Guangzhou to enjoy fully unmanned autonomous driving service when they place a request through the PonyPilot+ app. The new permit is coming after Pony.ai obtained the first remote test permit in the city in June 2021. It obtained another permit after the opening of the Guangzhou long-distance passenger transport policy.

The new permit will see Pony.ai fully autonomous Robotaxis traversing an area of 803 square kilometers in the Nansha District of the city.
According to Pony.ai, commuters in Guangzhou can use the PonyPilot+ to call a real self-driving vehicle and go to high-speed rail stations, subway entrances, residential areas, and several other destinations. The passenger can request for remote assistance during the trip and real-time communication will be activated. Pony.ai hopes to subsequently launch an online fully unmanned reservation system.

Pony.ai is also making inroads with its self-driving technology in other cities in China including the capital, Beijing. In March, the company obtained a demonstration application license for full vehicle unmanned operations in Beijing’s autonomous driving demonstration zone. Pony.ai was also allowed to open a fully unmanned vehicle in Yizhuang, Beijing.

The new Robotaxi models are equipped with Pony.ai’s sixth-generation self-driving software and hardware system. The Robotaxis have obtained test licenses in Beijing and Guangzhou. They have also passed expert reviews of the test without a safety driver inside the car in Beijing.

The Pony.ai’s self-driving Robotaxis are based on the Toyota Senna Autono-Maas (S-AM) with up to 200km of mileage during road testing. The company continues to chalk up the numbers in terms of its successes with autonomous driving. It has achieved over 21 million kilometers of autonomous driving and more than 1 million kilometers of unmanned testing. Pony.ai has also received about 200,000 paid travel orders. The company expects to extend the travel service to other parts of Guangzhou, Beijing, and other cities in China.

Pony.ai expands its Robotaxi services in China with Guangzhou rollout

Baidu & Pony.AI get China’s first commercial driverless robotaxi permits

Jed John Ikoba — Fri, 29 Apr 2022 10:05:32 +0000

Baidu and Pony.ai are two Chinese companies that have been blazing the trail in their various segments over the years. The two companies have now reached another milestone in China with their acquisition of commercial driverless robotaxi permits. They are the first companies to be issued permits to provide driverless ride-hailing services on open roads in Beijing. Previous permits relate to testing the self-driving vehicles without a safety driver in the vehicle.

China has seen a raft of self-driving services in several cities across the country. This is however the first time that any company will be allowed to run a fully driverless service on public roads. The permit however requires a safety operator in the front of the autonomous vehicle, unlike what obtains in California. The new permits to internet giant Baidu and autonomous vehicle company Pony.ai seem to be a further step in the evolution of driverless car-hailing. Both companies will not be collecting payments for the service.

Baidu and Pony.ai are currently running commercial robotaxis with a safety driver in the Beijing High-Level Automated Driving Demonstration Area (BJHAD). This is an area of about 60 sq. km with up to 300,000 residents. The two companies have said that the new service will run within the BJHAD. Ten and four driverless vehicles will be deployed for the new service by Baidu and Pony.ai respectively. Baidu already has up to 100 vehicles in its Apollo Go fleet in the area. The time for the service is 10 am-4 pm for Baidu and 9 am-5 pm for Pony.ai. Users can use the respective apps to hail the service and hundreds of drop-off/pickup locations will be on the route.

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Aftermath of a driverless car crash – California suspends Pony.ai’s driverless testing permit

Jed John Ikoba — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 11:53:04 +0000

Toyota-backed Chinese autonomous driving company, Pony.ai had one of its driverless vehicles in California involved in a crash due to a possible misreading of the road markings. The driverless car crashed into a road center divider and this has seemingly resulted in the suspension of Pony.ai’s driverless testing permit in California with immediate effect.

The suspension of Pony.ai’s driverless testing permit came a few weeks after the collision of the driverless car which fortunately did not result in any injuries or damage to other vehicles. The crash happened in October while the suspension was made last month after the accident report was filed with the regulator. It is unclear what aspect of the crash report is directly linked with the suspension of the driverless permit. Pony.ai in a statement said that it will work with the state regulator to figure out what caused the crash.

Pony.ai will however continue testing the vehicles in California with a safety driver behind the wheels. The suspended driverless permit was only valid for three cities in California and it was obtained about 6 months ago. California is a fertile ground for autonomous vehicle testing permits and eight companies had already secured the driverless permit in the state. It is unclear what is the duration of the suspension, but Pony.ai will continue to develop its driverless capability.

China’s Pony.ai plans to begin commercial driverless robotaxi service in California in 2022

Jed John Ikoba — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 08:52:30 +0000

Chinese startup Pony.ai has commenced testing of its driverless vehicles on public roads he the US state of California. This is a prelude to the full rollout of commercial robotaxi services in the US planned for 2022.

Pony.ai is among the startups that have secured approval for driverless vehicle testing in both China and the United States. The testing has progressed past the stage where there will need to be a human safety driver behind the wheel to a fully autonomous operation. The testing is reportedly carried out daily on public roads in the Fremont and Milpitas area of California. A similar test-run is also carried out in the Chinese city of Guangzhou.

According to Techcrunch, Pony.ai has disclosed that it plans to resume a rideshare service that is open to the public in the city Californian of Irvine this summer. The robotaxis won’t be fully autonomous, though, as there will be a human safety driver behind the wheel. The startup aims to fully automate the running of the cars next year. That is if the firm is able to scale the regulatory hurdles that need to be overcome before such services will be allowed on public roads in the US and even China. Pony.ai CEO and co-founder James Peng calls the firm’s plan an “ambitious vision”.

Pony.ai isn’t alone in this goal of achieving fully autonomous robotaxi services. There are several other companies also testing their own models in different US cities, including some Chinese firms – AutoX, Baidu, and WeRide. Other firms also working on driverless rideshare services include Amazon’s Zoox, Cruise, Waymo, and Nuro. There are up to 55 such firms with operational licenses but Nuro is the only firm that has got a deployment permit which makes it possible for the company to roll out driverless car services commercially.

Chinese startup Pony.ai gets the nod to start testing its driverless vehicles in California

Jed John Ikoba — Mon, 24 May 2021 14:21:32 +0000

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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