China’s Waymo challenger Pony.ai hits the accelerator to speed up to a robotaxi fleet of 200
Pony.ai said it will gradually add its new driverless cars to China and the US, with 100 vehicles in each, as it tries to catch up on autonomous driving leader Waymo of the US.
Pony.ai, China’s most valuable autonomous driving start-up, is picking up speed, with plans to boost its robotaxi fleet to more than 200 from the current 20 by early next year.
The move will give the start-up more driving mileage and therefore more high-stakes data needed to put self-driving cars closer to commercialisation.
“Our next target is to build a fleet, as what is most important is to turn autonomous cars into mass production and achieve scalability,” said James Peng, co-founder and chief executive of Pony.ai, at a briefing on the sidelines of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on Tuesday.
“The fleet will allow us to hone overall stability and reliability of the self-driving system, readying for getting closer to commercialisation,” he added, without providing a date.
The revolution under way in the role cars play in daily life is attracting a diverse field of big tech firms, start-ups and traditional car makers, with the US and China battling for dominance.
Major US players include General Motors and Alphabet, Google’s parent company. China’s long list of players includes search engine Baidu, which launched a pilot taxi programme in Chongqing in May, gaming and social media giant Tencent, Alibaba Group, the owner of the South China Morning Post, and Pony.ai and fellow start-up Jingchi, which were both founded in Silicon Valley but relocated their headquarters to mainland China last year. Waymo, Alphabet’s autonomous car subsidiary, is considered to be ahead in the race.