Pony.ai approved for autonomous truck platooning test with empty driver's seat in follow vehicles

Beijing (Gasgoo)- Autonomous driving solution developer Pony.ai announced it achieved a significant breakthrough in autonomous trucking by becoming the first company authorized to conduct platooning tests with follow vehicles operating with an empty driver's seat in China.

Photo credit: Pony.ai

As the only enterprise licensed for inter-provincial autonomous driving testing across Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei, Pony.ai will begin driverless platooning tests and freight services on the Jingjintang Expressway.  

The new permit allows Pony.ai to perform "1+N" platooning tests, where one lead truck guides multiple autonomous follow vehicles without drivers in the driver's seat. This development marks a critical step toward large-scale commercialization of autonomous trucking. Pony.ai aims to advance its technology further, enabling fully driverless operations for follow vehicles and significantly reducing logistics costs.  

Since launching autonomous freight services on the Jingjintang Expressway with Sinotrans, Pony.ai's autonomous trucks have transported nearly 500 TEUs of cargo, covering over 45,000 kilometers in real-world logistics operations.

By December 2024, Pony.ai's autonomous trucks had logged over 5 million kilometers in road tests and transported more than 860 million tonne-kilometers of goods. Looking ahead, the company plans to scale up fully driverless platooning operations, advancing its commercialization efforts for autonomous trucking.