PONY News & Events

China has suspended issuing licenses to autonomous vehicles after dozens of Baidu's (BIDU) Apollo Go robotaxis stopped in Wuhan last month, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter. This event alarmed authorities and three agencies met with officials from cities that have robotaxis earlier this month, the sources said. Regulators asked local governments to conduct a self-review and enhance safety monitoring to prevent more incidents, the sources said. Other companies in the space include Pony AI (PONY) and WeRide (WRD).

Pony AI (PONY) announced its new generation autonomous driving domain controller, a compute system designed for both Pony.ai's L4 autonomous driving platform and a set of customer applications across autonomous mobility. Developed in collaboration with Nvidia (NVDA), the new controller is built on the Nvidia Drive Hyperion platform and powered by Nvidia Drive AGX Thor with Nvidia NVLink, supporting Pony.ai's next phase of commercialization in robotaxis and its growing domain controller business.

Pony AI (PONY) is advancing the commercialization of Level 4 autonomous driving through continued cost reduction, fleet expansion and broader product deployment across mobility and logistics. At Auto China 2026 in Beijing, Pony.ai highlighted progress in lowering the cost of its seventh-generation robotaxis, with total vehicle cost of its 2027 robotaxi in China market, including both the autonomous driving kit and the base vehicle, expected to fall below RMB 230,000. The company also pointed to continued robotaxi fleet expansion, a broader L4 product lineup with a new autonomous light-duty truck, and PonyWorld 2.0, its upgraded proprietary world model, as key drivers of continued deployment at scale. After introducing its Gen-7 Robotaxi lineup last year, Pony.ai has expanded its fleet from 270 vehicles to more than 1,400. Supported by a 70% reduction in bill-of-materials cost for its Gen-7 autonomous driving kit, along with continued operational optimization, the company has achieved key commercialization milestones, including unit-economics breakeven in two of Southern China's largest economic hubs. Pony.ai's registered user base has also surpassed 1M, nearly tripling from a year earlier. The latest cost reductions are expected to support mass production and further advance Pony.ai's "dual-engine" growth strategy across both China and international markets. The company aims to expand its fleet to more than 3,000 robotaxis by the end of this year and extend its footprint to 20 cities globally, with nearly half of those cities located in overseas markets. Based on its Gen-7 Robotaxi platform, Pony.ai plans to introduce an overseas version tailored to local regulatory requirements, infrastructure conditions and user needs, supporting deployment of more than 1,000 units in international markets. Pony.ai's accelerating commercialization momentum is also reflected in its collaboration with Toyota (TM). The Gen-7 bZ4X Robotaxi has officially received an on-road testing permit in Guangzhou. As production ramps up, the two companies plan to deploy 1,000 bZ4X Robotaxis this year across major tier-one cities in China. At Auto China 2026, Pony.ai unveiled an L4 electric light-duty truck, a fully redundant light truck for L4 autonomous driving and developed in collaboration with CATL.