Launching Autonomous Delivery Services to Support Our Communities

At Pony.ai, it’s our founding mission to deliver autonomous mobility everywhere. As we face a public health crisis together with the communities we serve, we are actively thinking about what we can do to support our communities the best way we can. That’s why today, we want to share with you how we are doing our part to make our team and technology helpful during this unprecedented time.

Delivering Meals to Vulnerable Communities in Fremont

Vulnerable communities are among the hardest hit by the current pandemic, so we are joining forces with the City of Fremont to deliver meals to residents in a local emergency shelter program at the Islander living complex. Each week, chefs from the Fremont Senior Center will prepare meals, which will be delivered to the Islander via Pony.ai’s autonomous fleet. With rapid planning and preparation, we have adapted our autonomous driving vehicles for no-contact meal delivery, leveraging our existing capabilities to continue serving our community in this time of need.

Launching Autonomous Last-Mile Delivery in Irvine

We are partnering with Yamibuy, an e-commerce platform based in Los Angeles, to bring an autonomous and contactless last-mile delivery service to customers in Irvine, California. Powered by Pony.ai’s self-driving technology and all-electric fleet, the pilot delivery service provides customers in Irvine with a safe and convenient option for getting the essential goods and groceries they need during this challenging time. Our partnership also helps to address the soaring demand for home deliveries as the pandemic continues to strain the essential businesses and last-mile logistics of our communities.

Our local delivery service also marks the first time that we are deploying our autonomous driving fleet for goods delivery. We became the first company to launch a public-facing robotaxi service in California last year, which has been operating in Irvine since November 2019. While we have currently paused our robotaxi service in the interest of public health, we are quickly repurposing our existing fleet to provide much-needed additional capacity to meet the growing need for contactless goods delivery. As we all shelter-in-place in an effort to protect our communities, ensuring that residents have safe and efficient access to essential goods is more critical than ever.

The pilot service will run through mid-summer with an initial focus on the Irvine area.

We are committed to our mission, and we are committed to supporting our local communities and businesses. It’s our hope that through these efforts big or small, we can do our part to keep our communities safe and healthy.