China's self-driving startup Pony.ai teams up with SAIC AI Lab to advance fully driverless vehicles

Pony.ai(小马智行), a Chinese autonomous driving startup, and an artificial intelligence lab of SAIC Motor Group(上汽集团) are deepening joint product development after revealing their driverless concept car Marvel-R, reported Yicai Global on September 28.

SAIC AI Lab and Pony.ai will work together to build a driverless fleet of Marvel-R vehicles for large-scale commercial operations while expanding their respective product portfolios, the Guangzhou-based startup said in a statement on September 28. The two partners will cooperate on vehicle chassis, intelligent cockpit, human-machine interface, remote driving control, and other smart driving technologies.

Founded in 2016, Pony.ai has set up research and development centers in the US’s Silicon Valley, Guangzhou, Beijing, and Shanghai. It has been licensed to test and operate autonomous vehicles in multiple locations in China and the United States. As of July, Pony.ai has completed 900,000 driverless trips offered to the public, Yicai Global said.

SAIC AI Lab, established in 2019, led the Shanghai-based carmaker's SAIC Xiangdao Robotaxi project to start trial operations in Kaicheng in eastern China’s Anhui province, Suzhou, in eastern China’s Jiangsu province and Shanghai last year, marking the first Chinese robotaxi project spearheaded by an auto company.