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Pony.ai Unveils Next-Generation L4 Domain Controller Built on NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion

On April 25, 2026, Pony.ai announced a new-generation Level 4 autonomous driving domain controller developed in collaboration with NVIDIA, built on the NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion platform and powered by DRIVE AGX Thor SoCs with NVLink interconnect, delivering up to 4,000 FP4 TFLOPS of compute performance.

Tech Insights Reporter 5 min read Guangzhou

TLDR

Pony.ai released details of its upgraded L4 domain controller for autonomous driving. The high-performance compute system supports Pony.ai's own L4 Robotaxi and Robotruck platforms as well as broader customer applications in autonomous mobility. It is engineered for multi-sensor fusion, full-scenario perception, high-complexity understanding, safety redundancy, and efficiency gains while running the latest AI models.

New Domain Controller Architecture

The controller is built on the NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion platform and powered by NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Thor, using NVIDIA NVLink for high-speed, low-latency communication between two DRIVE Thor system-on-chips (SoCs).

Key design goals include:

  • Up to 4,000 FP4 TFLOPS combined maximum computing performance in multi-chip configuration.
  • Flexible single-chip and multi-chip setups across compute tiers and cooling solutions.
  • Support for multi-sensor fusion, full-scenario perception, and complex scenario understanding required for L4.
  • Enhanced energy efficiency, safety redundancy, system robustness, and deployment flexibility.

Pony.ai expects the platform to power a portfolio of autonomous applications including robotaxis, delivery, robosweeping, logistics, mining, and shuttles.

Partnership History and Evolution

Pony.ai has partnered with NVIDIA since 2017. Milestones include:

  • 2022: Launch of in-house automotive-grade computing units powered by single or multiple NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Orin SoCs, deployed in sixth-generation Robotaxis.
  • 2025: Mass production of the world's first L4 Robotaxi domain controller equipped with four NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Orin X chips, now powering the company's seventh-generation (Gen-7) Robotaxis.

The new Thor-based system advances this lineage with significantly higher performance and support for more advanced AI models.

Commercial Momentum

Demand for Pony.ai's "Fangzai" domain controllers grew rapidly, with 2025 shipments surging more than 500% year over year. Customers span dozens of countries including Germany, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Japan, and Switzerland.

Pony.ai has achieved unit-economics breakeven in two of China's major metropolitan markets for robotaxis. The company targets expanding its robotaxi fleet to more than 3,000 vehicles and its geographic footprint to more than 20 cities globally by the end of 2026.

Dr. James Peng, Founder and CEO of Pony.ai: “Our collaboration with NVIDIA has supported several critical milestones in Pony.ai's autonomous driving journey. The next-generation domain controller built on NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion will be a key enabler for the continued evolution of our L4 autonomous driving products and help accelerate large-scale commercialization.”

Rishi Dhall, Vice President of Automotive at NVIDIA: “Autonomous driving systems are rapidly increasing in complexity, driving the need for scalable, high-performance compute platforms. Pony.ai has been a long-standing NVIDIA DRIVE customer and ecosystem partner, and we're pleased to see them build their next-generation domain controller on NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion with DRIVE Thor accelerated compute to support advanced L4 autonomous driving applications.”

Why this story matters

This announcement provides concrete evidence of scaling L4 autonomy hardware with specific performance metrics (4,000 FP4 TFLOPS) and a clear NVIDIA-powered roadmap. It highlights deepening technical collaboration between a leading Chinese AV company and a U.S. chip leader, even amid broader geopolitical tensions. The combination of full-stack in-house capabilities, prior shipment growth, and fleet expansion targets signals accelerating commercialization of fully driverless robotaxis and other autonomous mobility services beyond passenger transport.

Sources

Featured Image Alt Text

Pony.ai L4 autonomous vehicle with NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion domain controller hardware diagram overlay, symbolizing the new high-performance compute platform for robotaxis

Tags

Pony.ai, NVIDIA, DRIVE Hyperion, AGX Thor, NVLink, L4, Autonomous Driving, Domain Controller, Robotaxi, China, Compute Platform

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