Pony.ai has been granted permission to operate its self-driving taxi service in China, making it the first business to do so (via Reuters). The Toyota-backed robotaxi service will begin operating 100 driverless vehicles in Guangzhou's Nansha area in May, with plans to extend to other parts of the city later.
Pony.ai claims that riders may hail and pay for trips using its app between 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 p.m., and that its charges will be comparable to "normal taxi pricing" in Guangzhou. A driver will be present in the autonomous vehicles for safety reasons, but they will be removed in a "short to intermediate time frame."
The Chinese business was granted permission — but not a license — to operate 67 cars in Beijing in November. It's also been trying to develop a presence in the United States, but that effort has been hampered by the suspension of its permit after one of its autonomous vehicles crashed in California. Since 2017, the business has been testing its cars in the state, and last year it was granted permission to run them without drivers.
Since April 2022, Pony.ai claims to have performed over 700,000 journeys, with about 80% of riders being repeat customers.