Toyota has a new way of deploying its EVs across China. Autonomous mobility startup Pony.ai announced Friday that it held a joint venture singing ceremony with Toyota Motor Investment and GAC Toyota Motor to mass produce and deploy fully driverless electric robotaxis in China.
Toyota electric robotaxis to take on China
The new joint venture is expected to be established this year with an over RMB 1 billion ($139.2M) investment.
According to the press release, GAC Toyota Motor (a 50/50 joint venture between Toyota and GAC Group in China) will provide Pony.ai with Toyota-branded electric vehicles. Equipped with Toyota’s vehicle redundant systems, the EVs can support L4 autonomous driving.
The Toyota EVs will feature Pony.ai’s autonomous driving tech and run on the company’s robotaxi network platform (PonyPilot+).
The new joint venture will build upon the relationship Toyota and Pony.ai have established over the past few years.
In August 2019, Toyota and Pony.ai announced they would advance self-driving vehicles in China, later testing them on public roads. The company currently has around 200 Toyota and Lexus brand robotaxis across China’s tier 1 cities.
Pony.ai became the first autonomous driving company to obtain a taxi license in China last April. The service has accumulated nearly 15 million miles (24 million km) of autonomous driving.
Toyota’s new joint venture is designed to “advance the future mass production” and “large-scale deployment” of fully driverless electric robotaxis.
The move to introduce robotaxis comes after Toyota has struggled to keep up in China’s auto market as it transitions to electric. Toyota revealed plans earlier this week to accelerate local development of tech and software in China in an effort to introduce “electrified vehicles that are competitive” in the market.
The new plans call for advancing the design and development of smart cockpits with modern interior designs and built-in AI, features Chinese buyers are demanding.
Toyota’s joint venture with GAC in China also announced it was terminating the contracts of about 1,000 workers early last week.
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