Pony.ai nabs another license to test L4 autonomous trucks on China’s open roads

After years of expanding autonomous robotaxi rides throughout China, self-driving specialist Pony.ai continues to scale its technology in another segment – commercial trucks. Today, the company announced it has acquired the first ever license in Guangzhou, China to begin testing its autonomous truck technology on open roads in packs formations.

Pony.ai Inc. is a technology company founded over seven years ago that specializes in fully-autonomous mobility. Its robotaxi development has been supported through partnerships with global OEMs like Toyota, GAC Group, and NIO Capital, helping it become one of the early leaders of completely driverless rides throughout several cities in China.

For example, since the launch of its robotaxi app in December 2018, Pony.ai has become the first to commercialize autonomous taxi services in the Chinese cities of Beijing and Guangzhou and one of the first companies licensed to operate in other tier-1 cities, such as Shanghai and Shenzen. It has also expanded US cities like Tucson, Arizona and even signed a partnership to bring its technology to the futuristic urban development NEOM in Saudi Arabia.

While we have covered Pony.ai closely the past few years, our focus has been on autonomous passenger EVs. However, the company also has a separate arm focused on autonomous commercial trucks, and now has the green light to begin testing its fleet in a new city in China, using unique pack formations.

L4 autonomous trucks to test China’s Guangzhou region

Pony.ai shared details of its latest autonomy milestone via its WeChat account earlier today, confirming it has received approval from China’s city of Guangzhou to begin L4 formation testing with its PonyTron autonomous trucks on open roads.

Pony.ai explained that “formation” testing involves a “1 + N” strategy in which one single autonomous truck leads a pack of L4 self-driving trucks behind it (seen above). The startup explains that this formation driving technique greatly reduces operating costs and improves overall efficiency during freight routes. Per the WeChat post:

By eliminating the braking difference time between front and rear vehicles and shortening the following distance, the front vehicle can break the wind for the rear vehicle, effectively reducing air resistance, thereby reducing carbon emissions and achieving greener travel, while improving road use and efficiency, alleviating road congestion and reducing traffic accidents.

Sounds pretty nice!

To begin, Pony.ai says its license in Guangzhou allows it to test a total five PonyTron autonomous trucks on open roads. With autonomous truck operations already in place in areas around China like the Guangdong Province, Pony.ai says it has accrued 3 million km (~1.9 million miles) in self-driving truck tests and has completed 610,000 km of autonomous commercial operations to date.

With fresh licensing in place in a new city, Pony.ai says it is enabled it to continue to deepen the R&D of its autonomous truck technology in order to help modernize the logistics industry throughout China. Here’s a video of Pony.ai’s Robotruck truck in action: