Toyota-backed autonomous driving company Pony.ai stated Friday it would provide an autonomous delivery service to residents of Irvine, California, as demand for online orders has increased due to the lockdown led by COVID-19 coronavirus.
About 90% of U.S. shoppers are under stay-at-home orders, and an increase in demand for package and grocery delivery has left e-commerce platforms having a hard time to cope.
In response, Amazon has stated it prepares to hire 75,000 more people for jobs ranging from warehouse staff to delivery driver positions.
Pony.ai stated it would use autonomous electric vehicles to deliver packages from local e-commerce platform Yamibuy to consumers in Irvine, California, which has a population of over 200,000.
The autonomous fleet comprises 10 electric Kona sport-utility vehicles developed by Hyundai. Its deliveries will mark Pony.ai’s first attempt to provide goods, instead of transporting passengers.
As part of attempts to terminate the spread of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, self-driving technology firms such as Alphabet Inc. unit Waymo, General Motors unit Cruise Automation and Uber have suspended autonomous auto testing that involves back-up drivers.
Pony.ai stated in March it would pause its public robotaxi services in Fremont, California, and Irvine for three weeks.
The company is testing vehicles in the Chinese cities of Beijing and Guangzhou, and California’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) eased rules on autonomous delivery services in 2019.
The DMV stated at the time it would permit the testing and commercial use of light-duty autonomous delivery vehicles on California’s public roads with certain permissions.
Pony.ai, founded in 2016, raised $462 million in its recent funding round in February, led by an investment by Toyota. Sequoia Capital China and Beijing Kunlun Tech have also backed the company.
About 645,621 people in the US have been confirmed as being infected with the coronavirus. The virus has killed 29,216 people in the country. In California, 24,424 infections and 821 deaths due to coronavirus.
