Self-driving company Pony.ai has obtained a taxi license in China, allowing some of the company’s driverless vehicles to charge fares.
The company was licensed to operate 100 driverless vehicles in the Guangzhou city district of Nansha.
In Nansha, Pony.ai plan to charge fares throughout the 800-square-kilometer district with driverless cars. Users interested in using the platform can use the Pong.ai app to pay for rides.
The company will initially use these cars with safety drivers, but they will be removed “over the short to intermediate time frame.”
Pony.ai is a start-up developing autonomous driving solutions. The company was founded in 2016 by James Peng and Tiancheng Lou and headquartered in Fremont, California.
Since its inception, the company has been active in the U.S. and China, where its driverless technology has been tested.
The company’s technology has been tested on public roads in the California cities of Fremont and Milpitas, as well as in the Chinese cities of Guangzhou and Beijing.