The co-founder and CEO of Pony.ai, one of the world’s leading autonomous vehicle technology companies, refused to be drawn on whether he thinks Tesla will launch its robotaxi service this year.
“Tesla is big in scale, but we haven’t seen their large-scale testing yet,” James Peng said during CONVERGE LIVE.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has talked about robotaxis for years, but has yet to launch a commercial service.
Peng also noted the progress made by Alphabet‘s Waymo in deploying its autonomous ride-hailing cars on U.S. roads.
“In the U.S. … on the streets of San Francisco or LA, you can see Waymo cars have already been quite popular, and you can see it everywhere. I think in San Francisco, it has already been the second most popular ride hailing app, just behind Uber, overtaking Lyft,” he told CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal.
“So it is coming. It is gradually become just a de facto mode of transportation for the local residents.”
Pony.ai, which operates in the U.S. and China, earlier this year announced the launch of paid robotaxi services from multiple locations in Guangdong province. It is the first company to ply high-demand routes such as trips between Guangzhou’s city center to Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport and Guangzhou South Railway Station.
Peng said Chinese companies have the edge in developing autonomous vehicles and robotaxi services because of their access to a large network of component suppliers in China.
Clarification: This article has been updated to reflect Peng’s comments on Tesla and its large-scale testing.
