Pony.ai and GAC Commercial Vehicle unveiled a self-driving electric truck at IAA Transportation 2026, with mass production scheduled to begin later this year.
The T9 is the fourth generation of Pony.ai’s Robotruck platform and runs on GAC’s battery-electric T9 architecture. Pony.ai rates the vehicle at Level 4, meaning it is designed to drive without a human at the wheel within set conditions. Early routes will cover long-haul freight, dedicated logistics corridors and port work.
The sensor package includes nine lidars, three millimetre-wave radars and 13 cameras, giving the truck 360-degree coverage. Pony.ai says the bill of materials for the driving kit has fallen 70 percent from the previous generation, which is the part of the announcement that matters most to a freight business weighing adoption.
He Xing, who runs the Robotruck unit and serves as a Pony.ai vice president, said the debut marks another step toward volume production and commercial deployment, and that the partners intend to bring the platform to markets outside China.
Trucking has become one of the more contested proving grounds for autonomy, with operators arguing that fixed highway routes and predictable freight economics make it easier to commercialize than robotaxis. Pony.ai now has to show the T9 can be built and run at a cost fleets will accept.
