Autonomous Driving Startup Pony.ai Partners With Ride-Hailing Platform Caocao

Pony.ai, an autonomous driving company, announced on August 2 that it has reached a cooperation agreement with Chinese online ride-hailing platform Caocao Mobility, whereby the two sides will jointly promote the large-scale application of urban robotaxi services.

From August 3, users in Beijing can enjoy robotaxi services provided by Pony.ai via Caocao Mobility’s mobile application and mini program. Before placing an order, users need to choose the number of passengers, departure place and destination. The ride and payment process is no different from that of ordinary online car-hailing services.

The autonomous driving service covers the 60 square kilometers of Beijing High-Level Autonomous Driving Demonstration Zone. There are 250 stations for picking up and dropping off passengers.

In order to speed up the commercialization of autonomous driving technology, Pony.ai adopts two business models. On one hand, it individually operates its own ride-hailing platform, PonyPilot+, while also working with third-party mobility service providers to branch out to more cities. Up to now, Pony.ai holds relationships with Caocao Mobility, GAC Group-backed ONTIME, and T3 Mobility.

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Since the second half of last year, Chinese policies related to autonomous driving have been implemented, and the verification of domestic robotaxi business models has started. The cooperation between Pony.ai and Caocao Mobility will undoubtedly broaden the channels of autonomous driving service for users and enrich the commercial operation of robotaxis.

As of July 2022, Pony.ai has provided 900,000 autonomous driving services to the public, and 99% of passengers have given positive comments after completing their trips, with an average service satisfaction score of 4.9 out of 5.