Valve's Steam Machine: Everything we know Toyota and Pony.ai start mass producing robotaxis for China The first bZ4X robotaxi is ready to be deployed. It's the first of many, if the companies stick to their plan, which is to produce more than 1,000 bZ4X robotaxis this year. The bZ4X is one of the three autonomous vehicle models Pony.ai intends to use for commercial services in Tier 1 Chinese cities, including Beijing and Shanghai. The other two vehicles are already being used for Pony.ai's Pony.ai's goal is to operate 3,000 vehicles by the end of 2026.

Beijing (Gasgoo)- Pony.ai and Toyota Motor showcased their jointly developed Sienna Autono-MaaS vehicle powerd by Pony.ai's sixth-generation L4 autonomous driving suite at the 5th China International Import Expo (CIIE). According to Pony.ai, the standardized manufacturing of its first batch ADK (autonomous driving kit) has been kicked off. The vehicles have gone through a four-month-long closed road test. The first batch of the Sienna Autono-MaaS vehicles will be put into Robotaxi service in first-tier Chinese cities in the first half of 2023. The Sienna Autono-MaaS vehicle displayed at the CIIE features the similar exterior design as the Sienna for retail.

Pony.ai, a leading global autonomous driving technology company, is collaborating with SAIC AI Lab, a division of SAIC Motor (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation), China's largest auto manufacturer, to jointly explore and advance driverless technology. Together with SAIC AI Lab, Pony.ai launched a concept vehicle based on the SAIC Marvel R model and will build out a fleet of autonomous vehicles equipped with Pony.ai's The concept car is equipped with the latest generation of Pony.ai technology, which utilizes 17 integrated automotive-grade sensors to create a 360-degree visual range covering 200 meters, eliminating blind spots around the vehicle. The vehicle also features a new streamlined, compact design, including a new generation intelligent cockpit featuring a foldable steering wheel that provides a human-machine interaction experience that significantly advances automobile autonomy. The two companies will comprehensively collaborate on automotive chassis, intelligent cockpit, human-machine interface, remote assistance, and other intelligent driving technologies and jointly promote the implementation of Shanghai's driverless policy. Ultimately, this mass-produced, purpose-built vehicle will accelerate the widespread commercial adoption of robotaxi services and autonomous driving technology across multiple cities in China.

Pony.ai is the latest autonomous car company to make headlines for the wrong reasons. It has just lost its permit to test its fleet of autonomous vehicles in California over concerns about the driving record of the safety drivers it employs. It's a big blow for the company, and highlights the interesting spot the autonomous car industry is in right now. After a few years of very bad publicity, a number of companies have made real progress in getting self-driving cars on the road. If you're curious about what Pony.ai and some of the other major outfits are up to, here's a handy alphabetized guide to some of the key firms working on autonomous vehicles.

Beijing is paving the way for driverless robotaxis. China's capital city granted permits to auto startup Pony.ai and Chinese internet giant Baidu to offer self-driving car services to the general public, both companies announced today. Both operations will start out small -- Baidu's fleet will consist of 10 cars and Pony.ai will run four cars, reported CNBC. Eventually both companies plan to expand operations in the city. The Beijing government is requiring a staff member to be onboard each driverless vehicle to make sure things go smoothly.

Chinese internet giant Baidu and autonomous vehicle company Pony.ai To date, numerous cities in China have allowed autonomous vehicle companies to test self-driving vehicles without a human safety operator in the driver's seat, but this is the first time companies are allowed to run a fully driverless service. That said, the permit does require the companies to have a safety operator present in the front passenger seat, so the regulation is not quite as mature as, say, California's driverless permits which require no human in the vehicle aside from the passenger. Neither Pony nor Baidu will be charging a fee for driverless rides yet, although both companies are currently running commercial services with drivered robotaxis in Yizhuang, Beijing, otherwise referred to as Beijing High-level Automated Driving Demonstration Area (BJHAD), according to a Baidu spokesperson. This 60-square-kilometer stretch of Beijing, home to about 300,000 residents, is also where both Baidu's and Pony's driverless service will run.

On Wednesday, LatePost reported that autonomous driving technology company WeRide has recently obtained more than $400 million in a new round of financing, and its valuation after the investment totals $4.4 billion. The investors were existing shareholder GAC Group, as well as new shareholders Bosch, China Arab Investment Funds and Carlyle Group. China Arab Investment Funds also invested in the recent D-round financing of Pony.ai. Other investors of Pony.ai were Mubadala Investment Company and China Development Bank. In terms of valuations, Pony.ai and WeRide are the top two robotaxi automated driving companies in China.

More Chinese automakers collaborating on EVs -- The automotive industry has entered into an intense era of collaboration among carmakers, technology giants, and even software start-ups, among others. This trend comes as countries, including China, accelerate into increased usage of EVs and AVs. Numerous partnerships have sprouted up in the past year, adding density and life to this ecosystem. Among Chinese automakers themselves, a handful of significant partnerships were made to accelerate the developments of EVs and AVs within the country. In fact, China is shaping up to be the first real test of Big Tech's ambitions in the world of car making.

Autonomous driving startups in China are in an arms race to put passengers in their machine-driven vehicles. Every few weeks, news arrives that another major player has got the greenlight to launch a new pilot program or a small-scale service. These press releases, often dotted with regulatory jargon and flowery language to aggrandize the companies' progress, can be confusing. That's why we put together this post summarizing the progress of China's major robotaxi operators -- AutoX, Baidu, Deeproute.ai, Didi, Momenta, Pony.ai and WeRide -- in 2021 while trying to parse what their announcements actually mean.

Pony.ai, a Chinese autonomous driving company backed by Toyota, can no longer test fully self driving vehicles in California, for now at least. According to Reuters, the DMV suspended its driverless testing permit on November 19th, a few weeks after a reported collision in Fremont. Based on the report filed with the state's DMV, a Pony.ai It was a single vehicle incident, and there were no injuries and other vehicles involved. As Reuters said, it's unclear what aspect of the accident prompted the DMV to suspend Pony.ai's permit, but the company said it immediately launched an investigation and is working with the agency to figure out what caused the collision. While Pony.ai won't be able to test fully autonomous vehicles in California anymore, it can continue its trials with safety drivers behind the wheel.