Nansha issues China's 1st self-driving taxi license

Pony.ai won the bid for the 2022 taxi capacity index in Nansha district, Guangzhou on April 24, becoming the first autonomous driving company to be issued a taxi operation license in China.

The Nansha-based company has been approved to deploy 100 self-driving vehicles to provide taxi services in the district. It is expected that Pony.ai will start charging operations in Nansha from May and will gradually expand its services to other areas of Guangzhou, benefiting more people in Guangzhou.

Passengers can use the company's taxi service and complete payments through the PonyPilot+ App. Its taxi service time is from 8:30 to 22:30. The charging standard will be based on the default pricing standard for taxis in Guangzhou, with the starting price being 12 yuan ($1.83) for the first three kilometers. A special account will be offered in the early operation of the company's taxi service. 

Since December 2018, Pony.ai has provided many people with normalized self-driving travel services, continuously upgraded its self-driving system, and improved travel services.

As of mid-April this year, the PonyPilot+ service has provided traveling service more than 700,000 times, with 99 percent of its passengers providing positive feedback after their trips, with a service satisfaction score of 4.9 (out of 5).

At present, Pony.ai has obtained the largest number of autonomous driving test licenses in Guangzhou. By the end of 2021, Pony.ai's test mileage in Guangzhou was the highest in the city, accounting for more than half of the autonomous driving test mileage in Guangzhou.

As early as April 2018, Nansha took the lead in releasing the road test policy for smart vehicles in the country. It then opened the largest public road test area in China, as well as issued freight licenses for autonomous driving.

The issuance of taxi operating licenses to an autonomous driving technology company is another policy innovation in Nansha in promoting the development of autonomous driving technology.

As a pilot area for road testing of smart vehicles in Guangzhou, Nansha has been a pioneer in supporting autonomous vehicles that meet safety technical standards to carry out taxi demonstration operations in the area.

Pony.ai's passenger vehicle business entered the verification stage of its commercialization model last year.

Being the first autonomous driving company in China to obtain a taxi operation license is a good demonstration of Pony.ai's technical strength and passenger vehicles service operation capability.

In the future, Pony.ai plans to launch commercialized self-driving travel services in other major cities by next year and share its successful experience with more cities by 2025.

A self-driving taxi produced by Nansha-based autonomous driving enterprise Pony.ai. [Photo/WeChat account: nanshafabu]