Finance
Pony.ai wins permit for fully driverless taxi in Shenzhen business district
A Pony.ai robotaxi drives on a public road in a suburb in southern Beijing on July 11, 2024.
China News Service | China News Service | Getty Images
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BEIJING — In the latest step toward building a revenue-generating robotaxi business, Chinese start-up Pony.ai said it has obtained China’s first permit to charge fares for fully driverless taxis in core parts of a business district of Shenzhen.
The city is a coastal tech hub in southern China, sometimes dubbed the country’s Silicon Valley.
The license allows Pony.ai to charge fares for rides — without any human staff inside — in key parts of the district of Nanshan, home to tech giants Tencent and DJI. The permit does not cover trips across the entire space, limiting it to areas such as the financial sub-district.
Pony.ai has already operated robotaxis in parts of a neighboring Shenzhen district and can run taxis with human staff inside on routes that connect to the Shenzhen international airport and Shenzhen Bay Checkpoint on the border with Hong Kong.
While Pony.ai did not disclose how many robotaxis it could operate in the Shenzhen region, the company said the driverless cars could run daily from 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. local time.
Residents can book the robotaxi rides through Pony.ai’s app or a mini-program inside the WeChat messaging app, according to a press release.
Pony.ai also operates robotaxis in parts of the major Chinese cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, for a total of more than 250 cars across the country as of late November.
In late 2021, local authorities in Beijing started allowing Baidu’s Apollo Go and Pony.ai to charge fares for robotaxis in a southern suburb of the city.
In mid-March, Pony.ai also said it was the first company to launch a paid robotaxi route from the suburb to Beijing South Railway Station. Users must reserve the ride a day in advance, and a human staff worker must sit in the driver’s seat, according to current regulations.
Pony.ai this week reported “a significant increase” in passenger fares in the fourth quarter from a year ago, without disclosing exact figures. But the company said its overall revenue from robotaxi services fell by nearly 61.9% year-on-year to $2.6 million in the fourth quarter due to reduced service fees for autonomous vehicle engineering solutions. It also noted its revenue from robotruck services rose by 72.7% year-on-year to $12.9 million due to the expansion of its robotruck fleet.
It appears T. Rowe Price is benefitting from the record growth in actively managed exchange traded funds.
Tim Coyne, the firm’s head of ETFs, reports the firm is seeing significant growth in the area — listing the T. Rowe Price Capital Appreciation Equity ETF (TCAF) and T. Rowe Price U.S. Equity Research ETF (TSPA) as two established strategies that can satisfy investor demand.
“I think having that professionally managed portfolio is really beneficial to clients,” Coyne told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week. “We’re seeing just… greater volatility [and] uncertainty across both the equity and fixed income markets.“
According to Coyne, the T. Rowe Price Capital Appreciation Equity ETF suits investors who are looking for long-term growth.
“The objective of the fund is to outperform the S&P 500 with lower volatility and greater tax efficiency,” he said. “It’s also a more concentrated portfolio, typically holding around a hundred names.”
As of April 24, the fund’s top holdings include Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple according to the T. Rowe Price website. But it’s not all Big Tech. The ETF also features smaller positions in companies like Becton Dickinson and Roper Technologies.
The T. Rowe Price Capital Appreciation Equity ETF is down about 5% so far this year while the S&P 500 is off about 7% However, the ETF is up close to 8% over the past year — roughly identical to the S&P 500’s performance.
Coyne notes the T. Rowe Price U.S. Equity Research ETF follows a similar strategy, but with a heavier weighting in top tech stocks.
“This is more of a large-cap growth product [T Rowe Price U.S. Equity Research ETF],” he said. “There are components of characteristics of both passive and active here. This fund is actually managed by our North American directors of research. So again, strong fundamental research is going into the stock selection.”
Both the T. Rowe Price U.S. Equity Research ETF and S&P 500 are down around 7% since the beginning of the year. Meanwhile, the fund is up almost 9% over the past year. That’s less than one percent better than the S&P 500’s performance.
T. Rowe Price U.S. Equity Research ETF vs. S&P 500
‘Some form of bear market’
Strategas Securities’ Todd Sohn thinks investment demand for active managers will continue to be strong.
“This is the type of the environment where it [active management] can actually shine,” the firm’s senior ETF and technical strategist said. “We are in some form of bear market. This is where the active manager really can come into hand and offer their solution they are doing right.”
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