A Pony.ai autonomous automotive.
Pony.ai
BEIJING — Considered one of Pony.ai‘s robotaxis caught fireplace for the primary time on Tuesday, with no individuals harmed within the incident, the U.S.-listed Chinese language startup informed CNBC.
The corporate didn’t disclose the rationale behind the fireplace. Movies purporting to point out the incident in Beijing had circulated on social media. CNBC couldn’t independently confirm this footage.
Electrical automobiles comparable to these from Tesla, which is making an attempt to develop its personal robotaxi, have beforehand caught blaze.
Pony.ai mentioned that one among its totally self-driving automobiles was detected as having an irregular standing in Beijing round 9:30 a.m. native time on Might 13.
The corporate operates its automobiles utilizing software program that may be centrally monitored.
There have been no passengers on board on the time of the incident, and the automobile routinely initiated an emergency cease, leading to no collisions or accidents, Pony.ai mentioned. It famous that service employees arrived inside two minutes of receiving the alert.
“Throughout the dealing with course of, the automobile caught fireplace,” Pony.ai mentioned. “The on-site employees coordinated with related authorities to execute containment measures, safely and successfully resolved the incident. The precise trigger is presently beneath investigation.”
Shares of Pony.ai fell greater than 10% in a single day. The inventory is up greater than 25% for the yr up to now.
The corporate in late April introduced it was working with Toyota, Beijing’s BAIC and GAC’s Aion for brand new robotaxi automobiles that the corporate claimed can lower prices by 70%.
Chinese language autos firms have more and more ramped up competitors with U.S. rivals, with China-made electrical automobiles quickly turning into dominant gamers within the home market on the expense of Tesla and conventional international automakers.
