Pony.ai, a self-driving technology company, has formed a strategic joint venture with SANY Heavy Truck, a subsidiary of SANY Heavy Industry, a Chinese heavy equipment manufacturer and the third largest heavy equipment manufacturer in the world.
Pony.ai and SANY announce that they will collaborate to create a “global self-driving truck brand”.
The two companies say they will “deeply integrate” Pony.ai’s “virtual driver” with SANY’s technical accumulation in the field of chassis and wire-control vehicle development to jointly develop high-end heavy duty trucks. automotive grade and class L4. dismissals. These trucks will usher in the future of truck logistics transportation.
The joint venture plans to start small-scale deliveries of the robots in 2022 and 2023. Mass production of the L4 truck will begin in 2024 and will reach an annual output of around 10,000 trucks within a few years.
The first prototype of the self-driving truck was built on SANY’s new electric truck platform and has already undergone road tests. The joint venture’s autonomous truck product portfolio will include a mix of new energy vehicles (NEVs) and fuel-based vehicles, with the aim of increasing the proportion of NEV trucks in the future.
The potential trucking market is substantial; In 2021 alone, heavy truck sales in China topped 1.3 million units. Once mass production is achieved, the partners expect the penetration rate of L4 trucks in the Chinese heavy-duty market to increase steadily.
James Peng, Co-Founder and CEO of Pony.ai, said, “SANY has industry-leading truck manufacturing technology and is a pioneer in ‘new energy’ truck architecture. smart network connections and other key areas.
“Integrating Pony.ai’s leading autonomous driving technologies with SANY’s capabilities enables our joint venture to create a powerful smart truck and logistics ecosystem for L4 autonomous trucking.”
Liang Linhe, President of SANY Heavy Truck, said, “This partnership between SANY and Pony.ai is the ultimate collaboration between the ‘body’ and the ‘brain’ of the truck and thus enables the mass production of high-level autonomous trucks.
“This partnership, which has complementary strengths and competitive advantages, will advance autonomous trucking and logistics into the future and lead to a safer, more efficient and intelligent logistics system.”
Pony.ai has always been committed to developing self-driving software and hardware solutions in-house. In June, Pony.ai launched its Autonomous Driving Controller (ADC) designed for automotive-grade mass production. The ADC is built on the Nvidia Drive Orin system-on-chip and will fully activate the trucks produced by the joint venture.
Rishi Dhall, Vice President of Automotive at Nvidia, said, “The creation of this new venture between Pony.ai and SANY is an important milestone for the trucking industry.
“Powered by Nvidia Drive, this next generation of autonomous, new-energy trucks will enable the delivery of goods to meet the ever-increasing demands of e-commerce without compromising safety and reliability – while reducing the transportation industry’s reliance on fuels. fossils.”
Today’s partnership announcement follows the recently formed Cyantron joint venture between Pony.ai and Sinotrans, which began operations in April and aims to improve the digitalization and intelligence of the transportation process.
Building partnerships with top trucking and logistics companies is key to Pony.ai’s robot “golden triangle” strategy.
Pony.ai has core self-driving technology, which is key to enable logistics and future heavy truck manufacturing; logistics companies have accumulated extensive transport experience and a strong customer base, while truck manufacturers have the technical expertise in vehicle development and manufacturing.
The cementing of relationships between major global partners creates a powerful standard and framework for the future development of the industry.
Consumers around the world will benefit from the development of commercial-scale L4 trucking, including more robust supply chains, reduced costs for delivered goods, improved road safety and significantly reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
According to Pony.ai’s robot operation experience, based on vehicle planning and control as well as route planning, self-driving trucks can save 10-20% energy compared to conventional trucks.
In addition, with the gradual expansion of the JV’s new energy products, by 2030 the joint venture’s trucks will reduce CO2 emissions by more than one million tons, equivalent to the CO2 absorbed by thousands acres of forest.
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