Pony.ai teams up with Toyota China, GAC Toyota on Robotaxi development

Beijing (Gasgoo)- On August 4, Pony.ai, the Chinese autonomous driving solution developer, held a signing ceremony with Toyota Motor (China) Investment Co. Ltd. (referred to as "Toyota China") and GAC Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. (referred to as "GAC Toyota"). The three parties announced the establishment of a joint venture to support the future mass production and large-scale deployment of autonomous driving taxis (Robotaxis).

Photo credit: Pony.ai

Under the agreement, the joint venture, with an investment exceeding 1 billion yuan, will be set up within this year. It will provide a platform of Toyota's pure electric vehicles, produced by GAC Toyota, for Robotaxi use. These vehicles will be equipped with Toyota's redundant systems capable of fully autonomous driving and integrated with Pony.ai's autonomous driving system. Utilizing Pony.ai's mature Robotaxi operational platform, the joint venture aims to provide passengers with safe and reliable autonomous mobility services.

As a leading autonomous driving company, Pony.ai has already demonstrated commercial Robotaxi operations at Level 4 autonomy, making it an essential strategic partner for Toyota in the field of autonomous driving mobility services. 

Back in August 2019, Pony.ai and Toyota formed their collaboration in China to jointly promote the development of autonomous driving vehicles for mobility services. In September of the same year, the two companies began their autonomous driving cooperation project on public roads in China, using Toyota's Lexus RX model and Pony.ai's autonomous driving system. In April 2023, the Toyota "Siena Autono-MaaS" vehicles equipped with Pony.ai's sixth-generation L4 autonomous driving software and hardware system initiated public road testing in Beijing and Guangzhou, marking another significant milestone in the advanced autonomous driving collaboration between Pony.ai and Toyota for mobility services.