Hyundai to Start Self-Driving Ride Service in California

Hyundai will start it first service of self-driving rides in the U.S. next month.

The automaker said Sunday that it collaborated with autonomous driving start-up Pony.ai and ride sharing firm Via for a cab service called BotRide, which will offer ride-hailing in the city of Irvine, California, which has a large ethnic Korean population, from Nov. 4.

Based on self-driving technologies developed by Pony.ai, Hyundai's electric SUV Kona will be used for the service.

Customers will be able to book a self-driving car via smart phone apps developed by Via.

For now it is a free pilot service with a driver sitting by in case of emergency.

The Californian state allowed only four companies to provide self-driving services. Pony.ai is a Chinese unicorn valued at over US$1 billion. It is competing with Waymo, Google's self-driving car unit.

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