China’s Pony.ai rolls out US self-driving delivery service for groceries amid coronavirus lockdown

Chinese autonomous vehicle start-up Pony.ai has launched a self-driving delivery service in Irvine, California, to help fulfil increasing online grocery orders during the coronavirus lockdown.

The service, launched in partnership with Los Angeles-based e-commerce platform Yamibuy, enables residents in the area to receive their purchases of daily necessities at home in an “contactless” way, the company announced on Friday.

With an initial fleet of 10 autonomous vehicles, each is expected to load 10 to 20 packages per trip and deliver around 100 a day. Still, the operation is not completely without a human touch – a safety operator is needed on all trips, also serving as a delivery person to place the package at the customer’s doorstep.

The move follows the ride-hailing program Pony.ai has operated in Irvine since November, which was the first of its kind in California. The service, introduced together with South Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor Group, allows commuters to hail an on-demand autonomous ride or take a shared carpool with multiple commuters via an app.

Founded in 2016 by two former senior Google engineers, the company was valued at over US$3 billion after a funding round led by Japanese carmaker Toyota in February. The start-up counts Sequoia Capital and Fidelity International among its backers.

With robotaxi operations in both China and the US, Pony.ai is among a number of autonomous driving start-ups that have taken off in China, competing locally with bigger rivals like Baidu and internationally with Google, whose self-driving unit Waymo is an industry leader.