Pony.ai says that PonyTron, its autonomous trucking business unit, has 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 say they will work together to build a smart logistics network featuring autonomous trucking technologies. The joint venture is expected to commence operations in early 2022 with a fleet of over 100 trucks.
“Intelligent technologies are driving the transformation of mobility and transportation. Sinotrans is a world-leading logistics firm and Pony.ai offers world-class autonomous driving technologies. 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,” said James Peng, co-founder and CEO of Pony.ai.
In June 2021, PonyTron and Sinotrans launched a pilot program testing autonomous driving technologies for long-haul logistics, laying a solid foundation for the new joint venture.
“The joint venture with Sinotrans will provide real-life logistics scenarios to fully test and leverage our ‘virtual driver’ capabilities as trucking in China combines both the complexities of highway trucking and city trucking. We will be able to accumulate a massive amount of useful data, representing the full complexity of trucking traffic patterns, from open highways to downtown urban settings, which will be a great catalyst for the development of autonomous driving technology,” added Tiancheng Lou, co-founder and CTO of Pony.ai.
