Chinese startup Pony.ai has released an app to call a robot taxi.
The Chinese company Pony.ai has recently announced that his fleet wants to increase automated vehicles. In addition, the company tests their vehicle technology in Peking, Now it was announced that you can call a robot car with a new app. The service is not yet commercialized.
Pony.ai vehicle. Source getmobility.de
However, this means that Pony.ai is the first company in China to offer such a service. So far there are such services, especially in the US. There has Waymo in December such a service in the US state of Arizona started and Aptiv and Lyft operate together such a service in Las Vegas in the US state Nevada,
The Pony.ai app was already released for China in late December and runs on the chat service WeChat. The circle of users is limited. Thus, only the employees of Pony.ai and a handpicked selection of persons can use the service so far. Besides, the service is only for in the city Guangzhou possible. The service is free until further notice.
Pony.ai uses the pilot project for further insights to improve the service. When the service is commercialized is unknown. In addition to the fleet increase Pony.ai also wants to expand its platform. This should also serve to improve the market position against the competition.
In the driving mediation dominates in China above all Didi Chuxing, However, the market has been through new provisions The Chinese government has recently risen a bit. Furthermore, Pony.ai sees itself in competition with other startups in the country. This is part of it WeRide.ai (Jingchi) or Sense Time, These companies also have in common that they want to gain a foothold in Japan.
About David Flora
I’ve been writing about the topic of Autonomous & Connected Driving since 2011 and talk about it on other sites like the Smart Mobility Hub. I studied social sciences at the HU Berlin and since 2012 I am a freelance journalist. Contact: mail@autonomes-fahren.de