Liu sees network-driven ride-hailing giants Uber and Didi as being the biggest beneficiaries of this type of economy of scale, as fully autonomous technology becomes closer to reality, driven by so-called end-to-end artificial intelligence and advanced machine learning. Pony.ai has partnered with Toyota, China’s GAC, and BAIC for the production of its robotaxis, aiming to expand its autonomous ride-hailing fleet from its current level of almost 300 cars to 1,000 by the end of this year. The company’s seventh-gen robotaxis are said to cost 20% to 30% lower than those of US rival Alphabet’s self-driving unit Waymo, TechNode has reported. Search engine Baidu and ride-hailing platform Didi are among the rival companies also making robotaxis, as well as WeRide and Momenta. It notched a valuation of $5.25 billion in its long-awaited US initial public offering (IPO) in November.