Pony.ai forms joint autonomous driving venture with leading China logistics firm

Pony.ai, a global autonomous driving technology company, announced on December 27th that PonyTron, its autonomous trucking business unit, formed a joint venture with Sinotrans, part of China Merchants Group and one of China’s leading logistics and freight forwarding companies.

The two companies will work together to build a smart logistics network featuring autonomous driving trucking technologies. The joint venture is expected to commence operations in early 2022 with an intelligent logistics fleet consisting of over 100 trucks. Over time, this fleet size is expected to grow substantially, incorporating autonomous driving technologies, along with logistics technology.

James Peng, co-founder and CEO of Pony.ai, commented: “Intelligent technologies are driving the transformation of mobility and transportation. This strong partnership will create a benchmark for the massive commercial deployment of autonomous technologies, and will improve the efficiency and quality of the logistics sector. In addition, these technologies will add significant safety and environmental benefits to the trucking sector in China. We are delighted to shape the future of logistics together with Sinotrans.”

Song Rong, Executive Director and President of Sinotrans, said: “This innovative combination of an autonomous vehicle technology company together with a traditional logistics company will certainly inspire the transformation of the logistics sector. By forming an intelligent logistics platform, the two companies will join hands to tackle the core problems in both the autonomous driving and logistics sectors. We firmly believe that technological development will further strengthen the logistics sector and the entire industrial chain.”

Image courtesy of Pony.ai