Chinese startup Pony.ai is increasing its fleet by nearly 200 autonomous vehicles.
The startup Pony.ai already has in China some successes and now wants to increase its fleet of autonomous vehicles. Currently there are over 20 vehicles and they test in the Chinese capital Peking, By the beginning of 2019, the number is to increase to over 200 pieces. The exact number was not known, but this increase in the targeted time is a decent performance.
Pony.ai vehicle. Source: scmp.com
The high number of vehicles should shorten the development time, because the more data come together, the faster the adjustments can be made. The goal is to enter serial mass production. This was explained by co-founder James Peng at a conference in Shanghai this week. There they have sent ten of the vehicles at low speed on demonstration drive.
The vehicles should not only operate in China and collect data, but also in the US. Each about 100 pieces per country. Pony.ai has a license to operate these vehicles for the US state California,
Compared to Waymo, the leader in the development of autonomous driving technology, sees startup Pony.ai not far behind. Although Waymo had started development ten years ago, Peng says, but the technologies for commercialization have only matured in recent years. Pony.ai also wants to offer an autonomous driving service in China. But Waymo is even planning to do so this year, albeit not in California but in California Arizona,
Pony.ai has selected China because here is a high demand prevails and one can count on a large population. Even Waymo has already got in China settled.
source (English)