Legend Capital’s Portfolio Pony.ai Becomes the First Autonomous Driving Company to Receive a Taxi License in China

On April 24, Legend Capital’s portfolio company Pony.ai, Inc., a leading global autonomous driving technology company with offices in both China and the United States, announced that it has obtained a taxi license, making it the first and only autonomous driving company to do so in China. Pony.ai was awarded a permit to operate 100 autonomous vehicles as traditional taxis in Nansha, Guangzhou.

Soon after obtaining the taxi license, Pony.ai has reached another key cooperation in the process of promoting the commercialization of autonomous driving travel services. On April 26, Pony.ai announced a deeper partnership with Ontime, GAC’s ride-hailing app. The partnership will enable the two companies to integrate high-quality resources of both parties in technology R&D and travel services, building a fleet of 100 autonomous driving vehicles and starting the Robotaxi (autonomous driving travel service) demonstration operation in Guangzhou within the year.

On April 28, Pony.ai took the lead in receiving the first batch of notices of the “unmanned demonstration application road test” to the Beijing ICV Policy Pilot Zone, which will allow the company to provide the public an autonomous driving travel service with "no safety officer in the main driver's seat, but only a safety officer in the co-pilot". Beijing has become the first city in China to start the pilot unmanned passenger vehicle operation, and it also provides policy innovation and support for the follow-up development of autonomous driving unmanned testing.

The commercialization model of Pony.ai's passenger car business entered the verification stage last year, and the winning of a bid for the taxi project in the Nansha district of Guangzhou marks a key step for Pony.ai to promote large-scale commercial applications. On November 25, 2021, Pony.ai was approved to pilot commercialized autonomous driving travel services to the public in Beijing and has accumulated extensive experience in product operation and user services, which can be quickly replicated in Guangzhou and other subsequent cities. Pony.ai is the first company approved to commercialize Robotaxi services in both Beijing and Guangzhou.

As the early-stage investor of Pony.ai, Legend Capital co-led the company’s Series A financing round and has long supported its development. Autonomous driving is one of the main investment directions of Legend Capital around intelligent and unmanned vehicles. In addition to Pony.ai, Legend Capital has also invested in Horizon Robotics, an autonomous driving AI chip company, Muniu Technology, a millimeter-wave radar company, Inceptio Technology, an autonomous driving truck technology and operation company, and Zongmu Technology, an ADAS solution provider. Moreover, SL Capital, a subsidiary of Legend Capital, has invested in Black Sesame Technologies, a visual perception system and autonomous driving IP company.