Category: Robotaxi

Toyota, Pony plan to set up joint venture to run robotaxi business in China

Toyota, Pony.ai plan to invest a total of more than RMB 1 billion to set up a joint venture within the year, which will launch robotaxi cars built on Toyota's pure electric vehicles.

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Pony.ai starts offering robotaxi service in Guangzhou without safety officer in vehicles

This is the first such permit issued in Guangzhou, where Pony.ai's 17 robotaxis have been approved to provide robotaxi service without safety officers.

Pony.ai starts offering robotaxi service in Guangzhou without safety officer in vehicles-CnEVPost

(Image credit: Pony.ai)

Pony.ai, a Chinese self-driving startup backed by Toyota Motor and NIO Capital, has been granted a permit for robotaxi service without safety officers in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, after receiving a similar permit in Beijing last month.

This is the first such permit issued in Guangzhou, where Pony.ai's 17 robotaxis were approved to provide the services, according to a press release today.

Within 803 square kilometers of Guangzhou's Nansha district, passengers will have the opportunity to call a real driverless vehicle via the mobile app PonyPilot+, Pony.ai said.

During the ride, passengers who need remote assistance can communicate in real-time with backstage personnel in the vehicle by voice, the company said.

On March 17, Pony.ai announced that it had received a permit in Beijing to operate a fully unmanned robotaxi service within 60 square kilometers of the Yizhuang Economic Development Zone.

Founded in late 2016, Pony.ai has set up R&D centers in Silicon Valley, Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai, and is running robotaxi operations locally.

In late 2019, NIO Capital said it invested in Pony.ai when it announced the completion of more than $200 million in fundraising. In February 2020, Pony.ai announced it had raised $400 million from Toyota.

Pony.ai starts offering robotaxi service in Guangzhou without safety officer in vehicles-CnEVPost

(Image credit: CnEVPost)

Pony.ai launched the robotaxi app PonyPilot in December 2018 and received a permit to operate the robotaxi service for a fee in Beijing in November 2021.

To date, Pony.ai has accumulated 21 million kilometers of autonomous driving, more than 1 million kilometers of fully unmanned testing and nearly 200,000 paid orders, it said today.

Baidu's robotaxi platform Apollo Go gets permit to offer fully driverless rides in Beijing

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Baidu’s robotaxi platform Apollo Go gets permit to offer fully driverless rides in Beijing

To date, Baidu's Apollo Go has been offering fully driverless ride-hailing services in Beijing, Wuhan and Chongqing.  | Baidu.US | Baidu.HK

(Image credit: Baidu)

Baidu's ride-hailing service platform Apollo Go has won a permit to offer fully driverless rides in Beijing, allowing it to expand the service to three Chinese megacities.

The search engine giant announced the development today, saying it is the first provider of fully driverless robotaxi services in the capital city of any country worldwide. Apollo Go has previously been approved to offer the service in Wuhan and Chongqing.

Baidu Apollo will deploy a total of 10 fully driverless vehicles in Beijing's Yizhuang Economic Development Zone, according to a press release from the company.

Apollo Go is currently providing an average of more than 20 rides per vehicle per day within the area, exceeding the average number of rides taken by traditional online ride-hailing services, Baidu said.

Yizhuang is one of the active hubs for autonomous driving in China. Beijing plans to expand its high-level automated demonstration area in the Yizhuang Economic Development Zone from the existing 60 square kilometers to an eventual 500 square kilometers.

Baidu has been developing autonomous driving technology since 2013 and has accumulated more than 50 million kilometers of testing in Level 4 autonomous driving.

As of the end of January, Apollo Go offered more than 2 million cumulative rides to the public, Baidu said.

In the fourth quarter of 2022, Apollo Go provided 561,000 rides to the public, up 162 percent year-on-year, according to Baidu's fourth-quarter earnings report.

On November 29 last year, Baidu announced that it plans to scale up Apollo's operations in 2023 with fully unmanned self-driving operations in more regions.

Baidu will build the world's largest fully driverless taxi service area in 2023, maintaining its growth momentum as the world's largest robot cab provider, the company said at the time.

Baidu previously announced plans to expand its self-driving mobility service to 65 cities by 2025 and 100 cities by 2030.

Baidu plans to put 200 additional driverless vehicles into operation in 2023

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