Recently, Pony.ai and South Korean technology company GEMVAXLINK held a signing ceremony in Seoul, South Korea, announcing the establishment of a joint venture to create leading autonomous driving travel technology and services for the Korean market through in-depth integration of resources and technological advantages of both parties. This cooperation opens Pony.ai's technology to the East Asian region, and is another important progress in the global layout of autonomous driving.
The joint venture is scheduled to be established in Seoul, South Korea, within this year. Through the joint venture, Pony.ai and GEMVAXLINK will jointly develop autonomous driving technologies and applications. According to the plan, the two parties will deploy an autonomous driving service fleet in Seoul in the early stage to provide the public with safe and comfortable ride-hailing services, and further explore the implementation and expansion of more autonomous driving products in South Korea on this basis.
Pony.ai Co-Founder and CEO Peng Jun (back left) and Gemvaxlink Chairman Jin Shang (back right) witnessed Pony.ai Vice President Gao Tian (front left) and Gemvaxlink CEO Huang Zhengyi (front right) sign the agreement.
Since 2016, Pony.ai has promoted autonomous driving R&D layout and fleet operation in China, the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and South Korea, and has iterated autonomous driving solutions with commercialization potential and technology generalization capabilities. Combined with the R&D, service and market resources of gemvaxlink's automotive connectivity and software platform that has been deeply cultivated in South Korea for many years, the two parties will work together to explore the commercial path of autonomous driving in the Korean market.
According to research data from the Korea Institute of Scientific and Technical Information, the South Korean autonomous driving solutions market will grow from approximately 76 percent in 20248.7 billion won (1.44 trillion won), which will increase to about 139 billion in 20288.6 billion yuan (2.62 trillion won), with a compound annual growth rate of 162%。Most of the vehicles currently sold in Korea have L1-L2 driver assistance functions. Compared with the development level of international L4 technology, South Korea's L4 unmanned driving application has not yet been rolled out on a large scale, but its mature urban infrastructure and market environment provide a good soil for the development of autonomous driving.
In recent years, Pony.ai has continued to make efforts to go overseas with technology, replicate and promote the mature experience of technology research and development, investment and construction, and product implementation, and actively explore the transformation of intelligent transportation in the future with more countries and regions. In October 2023, Pony.ai joined the intelligent vehicle industry cluster (S**i) built in Abu Dhabi, and then announced that it has received a $100 million investment from Saudi Arabia's New Future City (NEOM), and plans to establish an autonomous driving manufacturing and R&D center in Saudi Arabia to carry out autonomous driving R&D and manufacturing for the Middle East and North Africa region.