Hyundai and Chinese start-up Pony.ai join forces on driverless robotaxi service in California

While the global market for driverless transport will take many years to develop, commuters in the US city of Irvine, California, will soon be able to hail rides from an on-demand robotaxi service set up by South Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor Group, using technology from Chinese start-up Pony.ai.

The new service, called BotRide, will start operations on November 4 with an initial fleet of 10 autonomous sport utility vehicles providing free rides in Irvine through January, according to the two companies on Friday.

Hyundai Motor has adopted Pony.ai’s self-driving system in the SUVs for BotRide, which can be accessed by commuters via an app created by on-demand, ride-sharing services provider Via. The BotRide app can support carpools, which allows multiple commuters to share a ride, and direct passengers to nearby pickup points to avoid detours.

“The pilot introduces BotRide to several hundred Irvine residents, including college students,” said Christopher Chang, head of business development at Hyundai Motor’s strategy and technology division, in a statement. “The goal is to study consumer behaviour in an autonomous ride-sharing environment.”

BotRide marks the first autonomous ride-hailing service to be made available in California. To ensure public safety, each autonomous SUV will have a human co-pilot in charge of monitoring the self-driving system, according to Hyundai Motor and Pony.ai.

Today, Pony.ai is part of a group of Chinese start-ups, including WeRide and AutoX, that are working to put driverless cars on the road, employing multi-sensor systems and advanced software. Autonomous driving has become a key segment of the artificial intelligence market, in which China and the US both seek to be global leaders.