China’s leading driverless technology firm Pony.ai sees "big potential" in Europe, with its CEO highlighting safe, reliable and comfortable autonomous driving systems.
The Chinese company, founded in 2016 and headquartered in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, has launched its robotaxi services in Croatia. It also plans to launch autonomous mobility test program in Luxembourg.
In an exclusive interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN) on the sidelines of MOVE, a leading global auto tech event in London, James Peng, founder and CEO of Pony.ai, said the company is working to build trust in Europe. He explained that more mobility tests are being conducted to show regulators and consumers the safety and reliability of autonomous driving.
"Because mobility is in an open environment, in itself it is very diverse, not just the road conditions -- it's very different from country to country -- the driving behavior and the pedestrian behavior are quite different [from] country to country. And on top of that is also the environment itself can change: heavy rain, snowstorms, and all of that. So essentially, we have to make our AI systems to train and to learn all these diverse environments and to cope with it, to make the vehicle to be safe, reliable, and comfortable," he said.
On regulatory hurdles, Peng struck an optimistic tone, stressing a "seeing is believing" approach.
"What's in regulators' minds are very similar across the board. They care about safety, they care about the impact to the existing -- impact could be positive or negative -- to the existing mobility systems. They care about taxi services and also potential job loss or job impact. For example, once we brought in our services in Luxembourg, in Zagreb in Croatia, the local regulators can see it, seeing is believing. Once they see this is actually working, safe, reliable, enjoyed by the local residents, their mind will change. So I think it just takes time," he said.
"I think a lot of people focus on one aspect of autonomous driving, either on technology or on cost or on regulation, but rather they didn't think it's actually a holistic approach. That's why I'm super optimistic and confident because on every single point you'll see there's obstacles. But if you think of it in a holistic way, then you see the big potential for it," Peng said.
Pony.ai currently operates a fleet of over 1,400 Robotaxis and approximately 200 Robotrucks, with its global autonomous driving test mileage accumulating to more than 70 million kilometers, of which over 20 million kilometers were completed in fully driverless mode.
China’s Pony.ai sees big potential in Europe with autonomous driving push
