pony-ai

A global leader in autonomous driving technology, developing AI-driven solutions for robotaxi and robotruck services.

Pony.ai

I have with me the founder and CEO of Pony.ai, James Peng, who is pioneering a lot of this technology for autonomous driving, including the one behind you, which is the partnership with Toyota and also Juanjo Otto. 

And that joint venture essentially has this fleet of Robotaxis. You are already rolling these out on the streets of China. How much of a good test ground has China become for this kind of technology? 

Yes. Great. It's great to see you, Steve, in the Beijing Auto Show. In fact, we have already been testing the driverless vehicles on the open road in China for the last six years, starting from a year and a half ago. 

We're running fully driverless in both Beijing and Guangdong to the public, to the public. So actually paying passengers are getting in these and using them as a robotaxi. Absolutely. In select areas, though, in the whole region.

So in the whole district, it's not like a small part of the road. For example, in Beijing is 60 square kilometers of Adrian district. And in Guangdong, it's 800 square feet, a square kilometers of the Lanzhou district. So it's the regular users, usually. This vehicle is as a taxi service for their daily usage. 

So what's the next step? I heard there was an announcement yesterday along with Toyota, your main partner, that there will be a fleet of these robo taxis across China. Can you give me what you plan over the next five years? Absolutely. So the first and foremost, Toyota is a strategic partner and an important collaborator for Pony. 

And the joint venture we've formed lately is for the mass production of the vehicles that we have seen over here. And this will be the thousands of vehicles that will be off the assembly line of the AC factory.

And they will be deployed into the cities for the regular users and the passengers to enjoy. Tell me a little bit about the technology. We're going to talk about the IPO coming as well and some of the other finances. But as far as the technology here, of course, there's there's some debate about the right technology going forward. 

We know that Elon Musk is talking about Robotaxis as well. He's kind of looking, though, for pure vision technology, using cameras less on maps and LIDAR. What kind of technology do you have built in here on the on the in front of the car as well as on the top? 

Yeah, of course. I think these vehicles compare with our previous ones, at least on the look. On the look you have two important improvements. One is it's much more integrated. If you take just a glass of it, you can hardly tell. This is a robotaxi, right? It's it's like that. All the sensors are fully integrated with the vehicle.

Another feature is we have greatly enhanced that other user interaction features. For example, the interface inside the front panel even has the welcome lights on top. In terms of the technology, we use sensor fusion with LIDAR with camera. The main reason is we think technology is the means to the end, which the end is for safety for companies. And we use a good technology to ensure the passengers are safe. They're going to enjoy the ride. And as the technology progress, of course, we'll probably use cheaper sensors and the like. The pricing is going down to that to the hundreds of dollars even cheaper. Right. So so what? All right. You obviously, you've applied for an IPO potentially in the United States, either the NYSE or the Nasdaq. We got that announcement this week from Chinese regulators they've essentially approved. That is correct. Right.

That's why these regulators have approved for you to go listing the United States, which is a big move as well, because there's been a bit of a chill, obviously, for Chinese listings in the United States. 

First of all, how significant is that to list in the United States to tap those institutional investors? And how much do you really need to raise to essentially propel this? That currently is a CCRC approval. 

So that means we are from the Chinese regulatory point of view, we are eligible to be listed. But then of course, it's just the beginning step of the IPO journey. 

And along the way we'll talk to the investors well, see what's the market condition is. And then based on that, well, from our financing strategy, do you need to be profitable before you list? 

Are you profitable or when will you be profitable is the better question? No, I think for us to compare with. Multiple several years ago.

The good news is we actually formed a solid business plan. Right now, we have actually solid revenue coming in. We have great partners like Toyota. So and we have actually formed into a trucking business, into the mass production ADAS business. 

So our business lines is diversified and I think we are in a good solid condition to be IPO eligible. Of course, in terms of the profitable, I think it's a long awaited part of the joint venture and the mass production of the autonomous driving vehicles is a solid step towards the path to profitability. 

However, if you do this in the United States, obviously you have some global ambitions. How do you address the data security concerns that have risen? I mean, you have to navigate geopolitics and data security. You don't want to become the next one in the crosshairs like tick tock. Right. 

So how do you address these issues? Yeah, absolutely.

That's that's I shoot in the front and the center of our strategy. Go international. Actually, currently, we already have plans to work in the Korea market in the Middle East. 

And we actually have a small effort in the Luxembourg as well. Each of those efforts, the local regulation has always been the number one in our mind and will follow all the regulatory requirements in terms of data security. 

We have a strict policy. All the local data stays local. And of course, all the other. In terms of just that. The other mapping issue that everything else, we are definitely conforming to the regulation. 

Are you finding you talked about those international ambitions in South Africa, in Luxembourg, in Saudi Arabia, obviously potentially listing in the United States.

Are you finding that these the Chinese offerings, including what you're offering, is is is being well received because the US has its own offerings as well, like Waymo and Cruise? 

What kind of reception you get? Yeah, I think the reason well we'll go international is the first thing is it's our vision. It's our mission where we our our company model is upon us and mobility everywhere. 

So very start from day one. We have the global vision to offer a driving service to the users globally. We have good partners in those local markets and they value and cherish our technology, our product. 

So it's their help. It's their local government's help that enabled empowered us to go to that market, those markets. Very quick, we have to go. But IPO within five years. Within two years, hopefully so out, but we'll see within two years. Hopefully. Hopefully.

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