Pony.ai expects to deploy 500 to 1,000 Gen-4 autonomous heavy-duty trucks across China over the next two to three years, with a longer-term goal of 100,000 Level 4 (L4) light-duty trucks by 2030. He Xing, Vice President of Pony.ai and Head of its Robotruck business, said falling hardware costs had made large-scale deployment viable.

The Gen-4 heavy-duty truck has cut autonomous driving hardware costs by about 70% compared with the previous generation. As of November 2025, Pony.ai operated around 200 trucks and had transported more than one billion tonne-kilometres of freight, with Robotruck revenue reaching US$10.2m in the first quarter of 2026, up 31% year-on-year.

Pony.ai launched its first L4 light-duty truck in April 2026, co-developed with CATL, offering around 18 cubic metres of cargo space and an estimated 40% to 50% cut in per-kilometre operating costs once fully driverless. Its heavy-duty trucks were developed with Sany Truck, while Sinotrans supports long-haul and urban logistics operations across the network. Pony.ai expects partner-led deployment models to play a larger role as the market matures.

In a statement, He said: “We had been waiting for the right moment. Our truck technology had already reached a high level, but the cost of building an L4 Robotruck remained high.” He added that falling hardware costs had benefited both heavy- and light-duty trucks, prompting the shift to large-scale production.

Why this matters:

• A 70% hardware cost reduction, rather than a technology breakthrough, is what unlocked Pony.ai’s scaling timeline.He’s comments suggest the Gen-4 truck’s capabilities existed before now, and the delay in mass deployment came down to waiting for autonomous driving hardware to become commercially viable at the unit economics freight operators require.
• Sharing over 90% of the technology stack between light-duty trucks and robotaxis suggests urban freight autonomy may scale faster than heavy-duty trucking.Because the light-duty platform draws on infrastructure and operating capabilities already built for Pony.ai’s robotaxi business, it faces a shorter path to commercial deployment than heavy-duty trucks, which require more vehicle-specific engineering for highway conditions.
• The shift toward an ADaaS model signals Pony.ai sees its long-term value in software rather than fleet ownership.Moving away from direct vehicle ownership and letting manufacturers and logistics partners take on production and operations suggests the company is positioning itself as a technology licensor once the market matures, rather than an operator carrying fleet and freight risk itself.