Uber Teams Up with Pony AI to Launch Robotaxis Globally

Post by : Layla Badr

Photo: Reuters

Uber announced on Tuesday that it is teaming up with Pony AI, a company from China that develops robot taxis. They plan to put Pony AI's self-driving cars on Uber's ride-hailing app. This partnership will start in a major market in the Middle East later this year and will expand to more countries in the future.

In the beginning, Pony AI's cars will have a person onboard to ensure safety. Later, they aim to operate fully on their own for commercial rides.

Recently, Uber has made several new partnerships and expanded existing ones to compete better with companies like Lyft and Tesla in the robot taxi market. Just last week, Uber partnered with May Mobility and Momenta, both working on self-driving technology. They also grew their collaboration with WeRide from China to enter 15 more cities globally. Last year, Uber also expanded its partnership with Waymo, which is part of Alphabet.

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Shares of Pony AI, which started trading on Nasdaq in November, went up nearly 13% before the market opened. Uber's shares, on the other hand, went down 1%.

Even though there are challenges in engineering and following rules, technology and electric vehicle companies are rushing to create self-driving systems. They are aiming to launch robot taxis for many people to use.

The U.S. government is helping by making it easier for self-driving cars to be used more widely. They are changing some safety rules and requiring that all accidents involving these cars be reported.

Pony AI, founded in 2016 and supported by Toyota, is looking to expand in countries like South Korea, Luxembourg, and more in the Middle East. They already have permission to run their robot taxi services in big cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. They are also working to start these services in Hong Kong.

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