On March 12, Pony.ai and the Luxembourg government signed a memorandum of understanding on autonomous driving cooperation.
The document was signed by Pony.ai co-founder and CEO Peng Jun and Luxembourg's Minister of Economy Lex Delles, marking the formal cooperation between Pony.ai and the Luxembourg government to promote local autonomous driving research, development and deployment. With the support of Luxembourg's national innovation agency Luxinnovation and others, Pony.ai plans to establish a regional R&D center in Luxembourg.
Pony.ai is an autonomous driving technology start-up company founded in December 2016 by Peng Jun and Lou Tiancheng in the Bay Area of California. It develops L4/L5 level autonomous driving technology. In 2017, Pony.ai established R&D centers in Beijing and Guangzhou and moved its China headquarters to Guangzhou. Pony.ai uses "virtual driver" technology as its backbone to build three core businesses: self-driving travel services, self-driving trucks, and passenger car intelligent driving services.
Last year, Pony.ai established a self-driving taxi (Robotaxi) joint venture with Toyota China and GAC Toyota. The total investment is expected to be more than 1 billion yuan. In terms of unmanned commercial vehicles, Pony.ai has also reached in-depth cooperation with companies such as Meituan and Neolithic in the field of unmanned delivery. This cooperation between Pony.ai and the Luxembourg government will contribute to its exploration and research and development in the cutting-edge field of autonomous driving, and will play a key role in Pony.ai launching customized autonomous driving solutions for the European market and users.
Pony.ai co-founder and CEO Peng Jun said: "As a top autonomous driving company with a global vision, we are pleased to establish cooperation with Luxembourg. This is undoubtedly an achievement of Pony.ai's continued promotion of globalization. Important results."
As an international country, Luxembourg has always been open to the development and application of emerging technologies. This cooperation with Pony.ai will help accelerate the development and application of autonomous driving technology and bring revolutionary changes to transportation in Luxembourg and even the entire European region. Lex Delles, Luxembourg's Minister of Economy, said, "The field of smart mobility is one of the priority strategies of the Luxembourg government to promote economic diversification. Our ultimate goal is to become the leader in the development of the European autonomous driving industry. In this context, we are committed to working with small businesses. We are very excited to cooperate with an industry leader like Pony.ai. This signing not only establishes the cooperative relationship between the two parties, but also becomes a key node in the coordinated development of Luxembourg's national development strategy and the autonomous driving industry technology represented by Pony.ai. , to provide assistance for Luxembourg's innovative technology research and development, job creation and sustainable economic growth."