Pony.ai has become the first company to have its driverless testing permit suspended by the California Department of Motor Vehicles. The action follows an accident in which, fortunately, no injuries were reported.
The accident in question took place on October 28, reports Reuters. The incident involved only the Pony.ai test vehicle, which hit a center divider and a traffic sign in Fremont, California after it made a right turn.
“We immediately launched an investigation, and are in contact with the California DMV about the incident,” a Pony.ai spokesman told the outlet. The company added that safety is the “foundation” of its autonomous technology.
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The regulator reports that Pony.ai has 10 Hyundai Kona electric vehicles registered under its driverless testing permit. Nevertheless, the company is backed by Toyota Motor Corp.
The DMV suspension, which took effect in November, does not impact Pony.ai’s permit for testing with a safety driver, per the regulator. Pony.ai said that the majority of its tests have involved safety testers and that will continue to be the case in the near term.
The suspension happened just six months after it became the eighth company to receive a driverless test permit in California. Others testing autonomous vehicles in California include Google’s Waymo, and General Motors’ Cruise.
Computer-aided driving systems have come under increased scrutiny as a result of a number of high-profile accidents. In March 2018, a Volvo XC90 with autonomous technology being tested by Uber struck and killed a woman in Tempe, Arizona.
Tesla, meanwhile, has been accused of overselling the effectiveness of its semi-autonomous technology to its customers while simultaneously underselling it to regulators in order to be able to test on public roads without permits, resulting in two senators requesting an FTC probe as well as a NHTSA probe.
