Autonomous fleets Road tests are planned for 2027, but sales or leasing won't take place until 2028.
GAC Commercial Vehicle (广汽领程), the commercial-vehicle arm of GAC Group (广汽集团), rolled its first mass-production T9 Robotrucks off the line on Oct. 29 at its plant in Guangzhou's Conghua district. The battery-electric heavy truck carries a Level 4 (L4) self-driving system from Pony.ai (小马智行), a Chinese robotaxi and robotruck company, built to drive with no human driver in set conditions. No report we read gave a count or named a buyer.
The first trucks go into testing and operation, aimed at long-haul, dedicated-route and port freight, Guangzhou Daily (广州日报) reported. The companies plan road tests in 2027, aiming for T9s in use by the hundreds. In 2028-2029 they will explore selling or leasing the trucks or offering freight services, and aim for production in the thousands, Jiemian (界面新闻) reported.
Pony.ai supplies the truck with a kit of nine lidars, three radars and 13 cameras whose parts cost 70% less than its previous generation's, it said when it unveiled the truck in September. GAC Group and Pony.ai have worked together on robotaxis since 2018, and GAC Commercial Vehicle signed an agreement with Pony.ai in April to extend the partnership to trucks.
The T9 is one model in Pony.ai's fourth-generation robotruck line, which has entered mass production, the company said in its interim report for the six months to June 30. The report doesn't say which model, but driverless trucks from that line already work commercially at Mawan Port in Shenzhen, alongside human-driven vehicles. Pony.ai's robotruck revenue rose 36.0% from a year earlier to US$23.5 million in the first half, mostly because of growth in its freight services, the company said.
Driver-assistance systems are already in commercial service on China’s long-haul truck routes, but they are a different class of technology: Level 2 systems, which assist a driver who stays at the wheel and remains responsible for the vehicle. ZYT (卓驭科技), a Shenzhen maker of such systems, says several hundred trucks with its Level 2 highway assistance now run long-haul express routes, as we reported. Pony.ai’s L4 trucks — built to drive themselves within approved areas — numbered in the hundreds on routes across China in September, IT Home (IT之家) reported, most still carrying a human safety driver, with some running fully driverless.
Sources: 界面新闻 Jiemian*,* 广州日报 Guangzhou Daily*,* Pony.ai*,* Pony AI Inc. 2026 interim report (SEC Form 6-K exhibit)**, 盖世汽车 Gasgoo [1]**, [2]**, IT之家 IT Home
Editor: Ian Lamont