China first licensed self-driving taxi, using Toyota Lexus, affordable price
The company Pony.ai recently received a license to operate a self-driving taxi service in China, becoming the first company to win the country’s approval.
Starting in May, the Toyota-backed self-driving taxi service will operate 100 vehicles in one district in Guangzhou and will then expand to serve other areas of the city.
Pony.ai says customers can pay for rides from the company’s app between 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 p.m., and the price of their car will be on par with the “standard taxi fare” in Guangzhou. For safety’s sake, self-driving taxis still have a driver on them for now, but the company plans to remove driver assistance in the future.
In November 2021, the company was approved to operate 67 test vehicles in Beijing before approval. One of the vehicles used is Lexus, which is equipped with Pony.ai’s autopilot system.
The company is also working to be able to operate in the US, after the plan was pushed back when one of its self-driving cars was involved in an accident in California that resulted in the suspension of its license. The company has been testing its vehicles in California since 2017 and received a license to operate driverless taxis last year.
Pony.ai says it has completed more than 700,000 trips since April 2022 alone, and nearly 80% of passengers are frequent flyers.
Reference: TheVerge
at Blogtuan.info – Source: genk.vn – Read the original article here
