- Pony AI has launched 24/7 robotaxi testing in Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, extended from the previous hours of 7 am to 11 pm daily.
- This will help alleviate the difficulty of late-night mobility, it said.
Chinese autonomous driving startup Pony AI (NASDAQ: PONY) announced today that it has launched 24/7 robotaxi testing in Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, extending its testing hours from 7 am to 11 pm daily.
The launch of tests covering all hours of the day demonstrates the maturity of autonomous driving technology and has far-reaching implications for the improvement and upgrading of urban transportation, the company said in a statement today.
Late night and early morning hours are typically overlooked by the mobility market, with traditional transportation options significantly reduced during these hours and public transportation capacity typically less than 30 percent of daytime levels, the company said.
Pony AI hopes to use the 24/7 testing to explore robotaxi operations at night and improve late-night transportation, it said.
The company has accumulated 50 million kilometers of autonomous driving test mileage globally, covering various traffic and lighting conditions from midday congestion to late-night driving.
Earlier this month, Pony AI announced that robotaxis equipped with its seventh-generation autonomous driving system have begun mass production and road testing.
The new generation of autonomous driving system took two years to develop and uses only automotive-grade components, with a 70 percent reduction in cost compared to the previous generation, according to the company.
With the significant improvement in cost-effectiveness of the seventh-generation system, Pony AI plans to build a fleet of over 1,000 robotaxis by the end of the year, it said.
