Pony.ai presents new robot taxi

Pony.ai presents new robot taxi

Beijing, 5/17/2021

Chinese autonomous vehicle company Pony.ai has unveiled its new robotaxi equipped with Luminar’s iris LiDAR sensors. The iris sensors cover a maximum range of 1,640 feet and are only 10 inches tall. Pony.ai will begin testing the vehicles next year before integrating them into its fleet of robotaxis in 2023.

Lidar – or „light detection and ranging“ – is used in most autonomous vehicles to accurately map the vehicle’s surroundings. It emits pulses of laser light that bounce off objects and return to a receiver, which can determine how far away objects are based on the amount of time it takes.

Pony’s autonomous driving service is available in five markets inhina and California. Pony.a’s autonomous vehicles have already logged more than 3.1 million miles and provided more than 250,000 robotaxi rides. In February, Pony.ai was valued at more than $5.3 billion.

In 2020, Luminar went public via a SPAC merger at a $2.9 billion valuation. Luminar also has partnerships with Volvo, Audi and the Toyota Research Institute.