(Yicai) Sept. 26 -- Pony.ai, a Chinese autonomous driving startup, has secured the first license to demonstrate the use of level four self-driving taxi services in the main urban areas of the southern tech hub of Shenzhen.

Users can hail a robotaxi in Shenzhen's Qianhai area via Pony.ai's smart travel app PonyPilot+, the Guangzhou-based firm said on WeChat yesterday. It has fixed nearly 150 pick-up and drop-off points in the city covering subway stations, parks, business clusters, and residential compounds, with operating hours from 8.30 a.m. to 10.30 p.m., it added.

Pony.ai secured Shenzhen's first permit to conduct road tests for its smart connected vehicles in May and started self-driving tests in the main urban areas. With the latest permit, its robotaxi service has progressed toward the unmanned, large-scale, and commercialization stage, it noted.

Pony.ai is one of the first companies to get permission to test autonomous driving in all of China's first-tier cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.

Founded in 2016, Pony.ai has set up research and development centers in Silicon Valley, Guangzhou, Beijing, and Shanghai and has plans to invest more to expand its safe, comfortable, and efficient autonomous travel services to more consumers. Its self-driving mileage has reached 25 million kilometers, with 250,000 km of roads covered by unmanned vehicles.

Editor: Martin Kadiev