Pony.ai unveils a Gen-4 driverless heavy truck with GAC at IAA

Pony.ai unveils a Gen-4 driverless heavy truck with GAC at IAA

14 September 2026: Pony.ai has unveiled a Level 4 autonomous heavy-duty truck built with GAC Commercial Vehicle on the manufacturer's T9 battery-electric platform. The company showed it at the IAA Transportation fair in Hannover in a global debut and says volume production begins later in 2026. It is one model in Pony.ai's Gen-4 Robotruck line.

Not yet independently verified. The 70 percent cost cut, the transport cost cut and the energy figure are Pony.ai's own targets and expectations, not measured results. No second source is given. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

What was shown

The truck is meant for long-haul freight, dedicated-route logistics and port transport. It combines Pony.ai's Gen-4 Level 4 trucking system with GAC Commercial Vehicle's drive-by-wire chassis, which has a fully redundant architecture: the steering, braking, communications, power, computing and sensing systems each have a backup.

The sensing kit has nine lidars, three millimetre-wave radars and 13 cameras, giving 360-degree coverage. It uses the same domain controller as Pony.ai's seventh-generation robotaxi, so the company is reusing one computing platform across its cars and its trucks.

The cost claim

Pony.ai says the bill of materials for the autonomous driving kit is 70% lower than on the previous generation.

The company also gives two expectations for a customer: transport cost per ton-km down by 30%, and energy use 10% lower than a conventional truck, helped by energy-efficiency algorithms and the T9's drag coefficient of 0.4 Cd.

Built in months

The strategic cooperation agreement between Pony.ai and GAC Commercial Vehicle was signed on 16 April, and the companies say vehicle testing and validation were completed within five months. The partnership extends Pony.ai's longstanding work with GAC Group from robotaxis into robotrucks. He Xing, Pony.ai's vice president and head of its Robotruck business, said the debut marks "another important step in accelerating the mass production and commercial deployment of Pony.ai's Robotrucks".

The Gen-4 truck as Pony.ai describes it in August

An earlier Pony.ai post, from 6 August, describes the Gen-4 heavy-duty truck as a battery-electric platform supporting single-vehicle autonomous operation and Level 4 platooning. It is designed for a service life of 20,000 operating hours or up to 1 million km. Production has started, with vehicles coming off the line in batches, and the company's target is 500 to 1,000 Gen-4 trucks deployed in China over the following two to three years for long-haul freight, bulk commodity transport and port logistics. Shenzhen's Mawan Port is among the first sites, with a project expected to deploy dozens of Gen-4 robotrucks. The post names SANY Truck as the partner for Gen-4 heavy-duty truck development.

It also gives operating history: as of November 2025 about 200 trucks were in operation and had transported over 1 billion ton-kilometres of freight, and first-quarter 2026 robotruck revenue was US$10.2 million, up 31% year over year. In its second-quarter results Pony.ai reported robotruck revenue up 40% year over year.

Light trucks and business models

Pony.ai introduced its first Level 4 light-duty truck in April 2026, co-developed with CATL on its Kunshi Chassis Platform, with about 18 cubic metres of cargo space. It sets a long-term goal of 100,000 Level 4 light-duty trucks by 2030.

Pony.ai offers two models: Transportation-as-a-Service, where it takes part in vehicle ownership and operations, mainly in early projects, and Autonomous Driving-as-a-Service, where manufacturers build the trucks, logistics partners own and run the fleets and Pony.ai provides its Virtual Driver.

Pony.ai's truck history and next markets

Pony.ai says it began developing robotrucks in 2018. The company plans to enter Europe and the Middle East with them within the next two years.

The same post lists the places where it already has robotaxi operations or partnerships: the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Croatia, Luxembourg, Singapore and South Korea.

Company profile on TrustList: Pony.ai

Related on TrustList:

• Taisei and TIER IV test three self-driving cars in a tunnel for Japan's MLIT
• Pony.ai says Doha robotaxi pilot passed the ministry's review
• Pony.ai and Verne begin driverless test rides on Zagreb's airport route

Sources

• Pony.ai: Pony.ai unveils new Gen-4 Robotruck in collaboration with GAC Commercial Vehicle, 14 September 2026
• Pony.ai: Scaling autonomous freight, inside Pony.ai's Robotruck business, 6 August 2026
• Pony.ai: Pony.ai reports record growth in paid robotaxi services, 18 August 2026