Pony.ai expects to deploy 500 to 1,000 Gen-4 autonomous heavy-duty trucks across three freight scenarios in China over the next two to three years, with a longer-term goal of 100,000 L4 autonomous light-duty trucks by 2030. He Xing, vice president of Pony.ai and head of the company’s Robotruck business, laid out those targets at a media briefing this week. According to the company, the numbers rest on a more mature autonomous driving system, lower hardware costs, automotive-grade redundant vehicle platforms and deeper collaboration with truck manufacturers and logistics operators.
Highlights
- Gen-4 heavy-duty deployment: 500 to 1,000 trucks over two to three years across long-haul freight, bulk commodity transportation and port logistics in China
- Hardware cost: Gen-4 autonomous driving hardware costs cut roughly 70% versus the previous generation, per Pony.ai
- Robotruck revenue: US$10.2 million in the first quarter of 2026, up 31% year over year
- Operating scale: approximately 200 trucks and more than 1 billion ton-kilometers of freight moved as of November 2025
Why Scale Autonomous Freight Now?
Pony.ai began developing autonomous trucks in 2018, starting with hand-built prototypes and moving successive generations closer to automotive-grade production through partnerships with truck manufacturers. The company frames road freight as a sector under structural pressure: a shortage of qualified heavy-duty drivers, an aging workforce, sharp seasonal demand swings, and fatigue risk tied to long hours and overnight running. L4 autonomy, in Pony.ai’s account, supplements capacity on repetitive routes and during shifts that are hard to staff.
The gating factor was cost rather than capability.
“We had been waiting for the right moment,” He said. “Our truck technology had already reached a high level, but the cost of building an L4 Robotruck remained high. The reduction in ADK costs benefited both heavy- and light-duty trucks. That is why we did not rush into large-scale production earlier.”
The Gen-4 heavy-duty truck reduced autonomous driving hardware costs by approximately 70% compared with the prior generation, the company says. Built for automotive-grade mass production, it is designed for a service life of 20,000 operating hours or up to 621,000 miles (1 million kilometers).
Two Truck Platforms, Two Roles in the Freight Network
The Robotruck lineup now splits across vehicle classes that sit at different points in the logistics chain.
Heavy-duty trucks handle movement between logistics hubs — highway long-haul, bulk commodity routes and port transportation. Gen-4 models are based on battery-electric platforms and support single-vehicle autonomous operation as well as L4 platooning, depending on the operating environment. Production is underway, with vehicles expected to enter commercial service in batches over the coming months. Shenzhen’s Mawan Port is among the first sites, where Pony.ai has secured a project and expects to deploy dozens of Gen-4 Robotrucks.
Light-duty trucks run between urban distribution centers, retail stores, delivery outlets and cold-chain facilities — road conditions that overlap heavily with the cities where Pony.ai’s Robotaxis already operate. Pony.ai introduced its first L4 autonomous light-duty truck in April 2026, co-developed with CATL and built on CATL’s Kunshi Chassis Platform, with automotive-grade components, a fully redundant safety architecture and roughly 636 cubic feet (18 cubic meters) of cargo space.
Those vehicles have entered intensive road testing in environments provided by logistics partners, covering express delivery, retail distribution and food and beverage cold-chain work. Pony.ai plans to pursue the regulatory approvals needed for fully driverless operation as validation progresses. Based on current operating assumptions, the company estimates fully driverless light-duty trucks could cut per-kilometer operating costs by 40% to 50% against human-driven operations, while carrying 2.6 times the cargo volume of mainstream low-speed autonomous delivery vehicles.
One Virtual Driver Across Robotaxis and Trucks
The light-duty truck runs the same core technology stack as Pony.ai’s Gen-7 Robotaxi. Because both operate in similar urban environments, they share charging, ground support, service centers, fleet management and remote assistance. Pony.ai puts the combined technological and operational overlap between the two platforms above 90%.
Heavy-duty trucks demand more vehicle-specific adaptation. Size, weight, mechanical structure and longer braking distances change the control requirements, and highway and bulk commodity routes introduce conditions passenger vehicles rarely encounter. The underlying capabilities for reading traffic, interacting with other road users and making driving decisions still draw on the same technology base. PonyWorld 2.0, the company’s proprietary world model, is designed to flag where the Virtual Driver needs improvement and guide targeted data collection.
All three platforms use redundant systems across steering, braking, communication, power supply, computing and sensing. The fail-operational design is intended to keep core driving functions available and let a vehicle select a safe pull-over point if hardware or software components fail.
A Partner-Led Route to Scale
Pony.ai has built the Robotruck business around vehicle manufacturers and logistics operators rather than owning the freight operation outright. Gen-4 heavy-duty trucks were developed with manufacturers including SANY Truck; the light-duty truck was co-developed with CATL; and Sinotrans works with Pony.ai across long-haul and urban logistics scenarios.
Earlier-stage projects use a Transportation-as-a-Service model, with Pony.ai participating more directly in vehicle ownership and freight operations to validate unit economics. As the market matures, the company expects an Autonomous Driving-as-a-Service structure to take over, with manufacturers producing trucks, logistics partners owning and operating fleets, and Pony.ai supplying the Virtual Driver and technical services. Some port projects are already moving that way.
“We are not here to run e-commerce or postal services ourselves,” He said. “Our role is to become a partner to logistics companies and integrate into the systems they already use to serve their customers.”
What Comes Next
Near-term work centers on ramping Gen-4 production and placing the trucks in commercial projects, while completing the testing and regulatory steps required to scale the light-duty vehicle. In heavy-duty trucking, the initial focus is highway freight corridors, bulk commodity routes and ports, alongside a model for simplifying trailer handoffs between autonomous highway runs and human-driven first- and last-mile delivery. Pony.ai also sees potential overseas, particularly at ports and other well-defined logistics sites where driver shortages and labor costs improve the economics of automation.
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