Pony.ai has started a 24/7 Robotaxi operation in China’s Guangzhou and Shenzhen cities.
This marks an expansion from a 15-hour service window to round-the-clock availability in the company’s development strategy within the country.
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The company has also increased its Robotaxi testing period to 24 hours a day in Beijing city of China, building upon its foundation of more than 50 million kilometres of autonomous testing globally.
These tests, which span various traffic and lighting conditions, are said to be crucial for assessing the system’s real-world performance.
Pony.ai employs a multi-sensor fusion architecture that combines a 128-beam light detection and ranging (LiDAR), eight-megapixel cameras, and four-dimensional (4D) millimetre-wave radar.
These will deliver 360-degree perception in low-light or nighttime conditions, where traditional vision-only systems may falter.
The company’s use of LiDAR and radar provides essential redundancy, enhancing the detection of low-contrast objects and mitigating the effects of headlight glare.
This ensures safer navigation on the roads that are dimly lit or unlit. The advanced autonomous driving software stack, built on the “PonyWorld foundation model and virtual driver” architecture, is deployed in the seventh-generation Robotaxi fleet.
It enables the precise detection of road elements and pedestrians up to 650 meters away, even in adverse weather conditions, due to a sensor self-cleaning system.
In April 2025, Pony.ai collaborated with Tencent Cloud and Smart Industries Group, the cloud business division of Tencent Holding, to advance autonomous driving technology.
The following month, the company entered a strategic collaboration with Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) to bring its advanced robotaxi fleet to the region, marking a step in the company’s worldwide expansion efforts.
