China: Is AI Accelerating Autonomous Driving?

Partnerships China: Is AI Accelerating Autonomous Driving?

2026-02-26 From Henrik Bork | Translated by AI 3 min Reading Time

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Software is only as fast as the hardware it runs on. For this reason, two Chinese companies—Moore Threads and Pony.ai—are now working together to accelerate the development of autonomous driving.

Pony.ai is cooperating with Moore Threads to bring Level 4 autonomous driving to the roads in China more quickly.(Image: Pony.ai) — Pony.ai is cooperating with Moore Threads to bring Level 4 autonomous driving to the roads in China more quickly.
(Image: Pony.ai)

The start-up Moore Threads is the hardware supplier. Pony.ai, which develops AI models for autonomous driving, is the software supplier. The company also operates a fleet of robotaxis in which it integrates its software. Both partners recently announced a strategic cooperation. The MTT S5000 GPUs and the "KUAE Intelligent Computing Cluster" from Moore Threads will now be used to train Pony.ai's AI model.

Focus on Reinforcement Learning

The aim is to create simulations of driving situations. It is said that more than ten billion test kilometers can be generated every week. This creates hundreds or even thousands of risk scenarios, known as edge cases. Example: An obstacle suddenly appears in front of the vehicle and braking must be imitated quickly but safely.

Both the world model of Pony.ai and vertical AI models in the robotaxis can be improved with the help of reinforcement learning, as shown in this example, because more risky situations arise than in the real videos recorded with cameras from the robotaxis. "A phase of unprecedented acceleration has begun for the development of autonomous driving," comments the Chinese news portal Zhongguo Xinwenwang on the collaboration between hardware and software developers. With the help of artificial intelligence and fast GPUs, the fast-forward button towards autonomous driving level 4 is being pressed, so to speak.

As is well known, Level 4 means that vehicles operate completely autonomously under certain conditions, for example on defined routes. Humans no longer have to be ready to intervene, but can simply ride along as passengers, as in a robotaxi. Or, in the case of a private self-driving car, they only have to intervene in exceptional situations.

Hybrid Model Drives Level 4 Forward

Nobody intends to guarantee the safety of such systems through simulations alone—in practice, it is much more about a hybrid model. Training is done with AI, then tested on the road, with many gigabytes of data being collected and re-evaluated.

But the expectation in the Chinese industry now is that with the help of AI and recent hardware advances in GPUs, the widespread adoption of Level 4 driving will come much faster than previously thought. "The partnership with Moore Threads is expected to significantly improve the efficiency of model training and system performance and become a powerful engine for accelerating this expansion," writes the Chinese car portal Gasgoo about Pony.ai's latest move.

The cooperation also has a political dimension. Pony.ai has been working with Nvidia for many years and uses its Drive Orion SoCs. However, due to frequent boycotts from Washington, the availability of US GPUs has become uncertain from a Chinese perspective. By joining forces, two domestic companies are now circumventing this supply chain risk.

Opportunity for New Economic Growth

According to Pony.ai, 1,159 robotaxis were already in use in several Chinese cities by the end of 2025. This figure is expected to rise to around 3,000 by the end of the year. Some forecasts are already talking about up to four million driverless cabs in China by the end of the 2030s. However, such predictions must always be viewed with a good dose of skepticism. In China, too, unforeseen accidents repeatedly cause setbacks, for example when a robotaxi is unable to brake quickly enough.In December, two pedestrians were hit and injured by a Hello robotaxi in Zhuzhou in Hunan province, Chinese media reported.

Despite such setbacks, the Chinese government is determined to accompany the development of autonomous driving with safety regulations, but not to slow it down. In all public announcements, there is always talk of a "balance" between safety and the promotion of domestic companies. Beijing sees the rapid expansion of this future-oriented industry as an opportunity for new economic growth. (se)

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