On Riding a Pony in Shenzhen

AVs are still here, just unevenly distributed.

I was going through Shenzhen on my way back from Xi’an. I decided to take a multi-day layover to ride a Pony, see the future, and catch up with a few people. I have previously reviewed the Riding a Waymo in LA.

The Level 4 Pony.ai robotaxi operates on a narrowly defined network in Shenzhen , and in other cities in China and elsewhere. Also, Pony is a publicly traded company on Nasdaq with a market cap of just over $4B, and there are rumours of a takeover by Uber. Pony’s website says they have a fleet of 270 vehicles and have traveled over 39M VKT, and it is the only operating AV provider in China.

Though the underlying technology rivals Waymo’s, the task on Chinese roads is harder than in the US: dense streams of mixed traffic, micromobility, and informal loading stress every square meter of roadspace. This probably explains why the operational area is relatively small. While Shenzhen is a new city (only 40 years old), so perhaps with less challenges than older cities, there are still many areas that are congested, or where the roads are narrow and used in unintended ways.

The trip was as expected (screenshots from the app below, courtesy of one of my Chinese colleagues who actually did the summoning). While basically uneventful, the only notable elements were one (safely) aborted lane change and a surprisingly sharp acceleration when a gap opened. Other road users seemed to trust the vehicle’s caution and perhaps exploited it.

I felt safer than in a human-driven taxi, though the well-regulated environment may deserve as much credit as the autonomy stack.

Taxi fares (via Didi) remain low when converted at market exchange rates. In purchasing-power terms, urban China is richer than headline GDP numbers suggest, and that shows in everyday mobility costs.

Honestly, I thought I’d have more to say about the trip, but it’s almost completely normal. It’s not quite like reviewing an elevator ride, but it sure is moving in that direction.

Pictures below:

Pony.ai vehicle, exterior, with a Lidar on the roof.

Pony.ai vehicle, interior. Look ma, no driver. (Like so many nightmares I had as a child, a passenger in the back seat of a driverless car out of control). Also a doll in the front seat, they wanted passengers in the back only — unlike Waymo. The screen, like most driver navigation in China shows position and path, although in this case it shows the position of the other vehicles.

Light show visible from Shenzhen Talent Park

FIN