BEIJING, May 26 Chinese autonomous driving company Pony.ai has not been affected by a national safety review following a robotaxi outage involving rival Baidu’s Apollo Go, and is pushing ahead with expansion into more cities, its CEO said on Tuesday.
China paused approvals for new autonomous vehicle licenses after Apollo Go’s robotaxis abruptly stopped on streets in Wuhan in late March, Bloomberg reported
The review focuses on how companies and local authorities ensure the safe operation of autonomous driving systems, James Peng, Pony.ai’s co-founder and CEO, told Reuters. Pony.ai has already completed all the evaluations and its business “has not been impacted”, he added. Peng clarified that the safety review did not entail a suspension of licenses and therefore the Guangzhou-based company is “in the process of launching into more cities” and plans to expand its fleet, he said.
Pony.ai said it aims to grow its robotaxi fleet to 3,500 vehicles by the end of the year, from more than 1,700 currently, raising its earlier target of 3,000 by 16.7%, according to a statement. It also expects full-year robotaxi revenue to exceed 3.5 times the levels in 2025, up from an earlier forecast of 3 times. The company posted its strongest quarter in terms of revenue from its core robotaxi services, which rose almost fivefold to $8.6 million in the first three months.