China’s GAC Group said on Oct. 10 it planned to invest $27 million in self-driving car startup Pony.ai through its wholly-owned subsidiary GAC Capital, a move expected to “create synergies” between the two companies and speed up the development of GAC’s automated driving functions. GAC and Pony.ai first forged a partnership in 2018, TechNode reported, followed by Pony’s undisclosed investment in GAC’ ride-hailing platform OnTime in April 2022, when the two companies said they would together operate an autonomous ride-hailing fleet. State-owned GAC has also been a strategic investor in WeRide since late 2021, a self-driving car company with regional headquarters in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. Both WeRide and Pony.ai are looking to sell shares in the US and have obtained approval for overseas listings from Chinese regulators. Pony.ai said on Monday its autonomous ride-hailing vehicles have traveled a total of 40 million kilometers (25 million miles), of which around 4 million km were entirely driverless.