For the first time in China, an autonomous driving platform will be offered alongside traditional taxi and ride-hailing platforms, charging taxi fares.

Pony.ai becomes the first and only autonomous driving company to be awarded a taxi license in China. According to the announcement, Pony.ai can now operate 100 self-driving taxis within the entire 800 sq Kms of the city of Nansha, Guangzhou, with standard taxi pricing, and within designated operating hours. (BusinessWire)

Pony.ai and robotaxis in China

The robotaxi service will commence in Nansha in May. Intending riders can hail the vehicles using the PonyPilot+ App within the service hours from [8:30] to [22:30] and with fares based on the standard taxi pricing in Guangzhou.

Currently available with a safety driver, Pony.ai says it expects to “remove the driver over the short to intermediate time frame.”

Pony.ai received the robotaxi fee-charging permit in Beijing in November 2021.

It is now the only company approved for autonomous driving commercialization services in two Tier-1 cities in China.

“With successful commercialization in Beijing and Guangzhou, Pony.ai plans to expand its commercialized robotaxi footprint to the other two Tier-1 cities in China next year and to more cities by the start of Pony.ai’s mass commercialization planned for 2024/2025,” the company said in a statement.

As of mid-April 2022, Pony.ai’s robotaxi service had completed more than 700,000 orders, with nearly 80% repeat users. It has won a service satisfaction rating reaching 4.9 on a 5-point scale from customers.

Meanwhile, to qualify for the Nansha license, Pony had to conduct at least 24 months of autonomous driving in China or other countries covering at least 1 million kms of testing mileage.

It was also required to conduct at least 200,000 kilometers of testing within Guangzhou’s designated test area, and have no involvement in any active liability traffic accidents.

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