On August 4, Toyota China signed an agreement with Pony.ai and GAC Toyota on the establishment of a joint venture company related to autonomous taxi (Robotaxi). The joint venture will be established within the year, with a total investment of more than 1 billion yuan. It plans to launch Robotaxi with Toyota brand pure electric vehicles as prototype vehicles produced by Toyota’s Chinee partner GAC-Toyota, equipped with the PCS (pre crash safety system) function of Toyota T-Pilot intelligent driving assistance system, and will also give full play to the advantages of Toyota TPS (Toyota Production System) and make use of the mature service operation system of GAC Toyota dealers, Escort the completely unmanned safe operation of Robotaxi from Pony.ai.
Ueda Tatsuro, director of Toyota Motor Corporation China, said, “The Chinese auto market is developing at an unprecedented speed, and electrification and intelligence have become the development direction of the new energy vehicle industry. Against this background, Toyota China and GAC Toyota jointly decided to established a joint venture company with Pony.ai, an important partner in the field of autonomous driving, and took the lead in promoting the commercialization of Robotaxi in China. This is not only an important measure for Toyota to carry out “Chinese-style inheritance and evolution”, but also a joint venture with Pony.ai. This is a new step of business cooperation, and we look forward to the early operation of the Robotaxi provided by the joint venture company, providing safe and secure mobile travel services for the general public, and helping to realize the vision of a carbon-neutral society and ‘Mobility for All’.”
Peng Jun, co-founder and CEO of Pony.ai, said, “Automatic driving technology has now entered the full scene landing stage, and continues to accumulate momentum for the high-quality development of China’s intelligent connected vehicle industry. Toyota is an international first-class automobile manufacturer, which enjoys a high reputation in the world. Previously, Pony.ai and Toyota had a happy experience in the field of automatic driving cooperation. This time, Toyota China, GAC Toyota and Pony.ai jointly established a joint venture, which will lead the trend of Robotaxi in unmanned, large-scale, mass production and high-quality development, provideing stable transportation capacity for autonomous driving travel services, assists in the commercialization and sustainable development of high-level autonomous driving, and helps the development of the intelligent connected vehicle industry enter a new stage, making contributions to Chinese society
Since 2019, Toyota carried out strategic cooperation with Pony.ai to jointly promote the research and development of high-level autonomous vehicles for mobile travel services in China. At present, there are about 200 Robotaxis with Lexus RX450h and Toyota Sienna as prototype vehicles, and Pony.ai’s operating platforms have provided autonomous mobile travel services in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Shanghai. Among them, demonstration operation licenses for fully autonomous driving have been obtained in Beijing and Guangzhou. As an important measure to promote electrification and intelligence in China, Toyota China will not only promote the large-scale and commercial application of high-level autonomous driving technology in the proposed joint venture company, but also explore promoting the mass production of Robotaxi in the future, committed to building a secure and safe transportation society in China.