The co-founder and CEO of Pony.ai, one of the world’s leaders in autonomous vehicles technology, is uncertain whether Tesla will launch a robo-taxi service this year, noting its lack of progress in deploying such vehicles on US roads.
“Tesla is big in scale, but we haven’t seen their large-scale testing yet,” James Peng said during CONVERGE LIVE, partly sidestepping a question about Tesla’s ability to roll out its robo-taxi service this year.
In contrast, driverless cars made by Alphabet’s Waymo are already visible in US cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles, he said.
CNBC’s senior technology correspondent Arjun Kharpal, who interviewed Peng, noted that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has talked about robo-taxis for years, but has yet to launch a commercial service.
Pony.ai, which operates in the U.S. and China, earlier this year announced the launch of paid robo-taxi services from multiple locations in Guangzhou province. It is the first company to ply high-demand routes such as trips between Guangdong’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 robo-taxi services because of their access to a large network of component suppliers in China.
