FREMONT, Calif., May 14, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pony.ai, a company building L4 autonomous driving technology, has established a research institute in the city of Guangzhou, China. Pony.ai’s Chief Advisor, Dr. Andrew Yao, is teaming up with former Uber ATG (Advanced Technology Group) Technical Chief, Dr. Erran (Li) Li to lead cutting-edge research and development in Artificial Intelligence.
This launch marks another important strategic move for Pony.ai following the establishment of its China headquarters in Nansha, Guangzhou. In addition to developing AI research related to autonomous driving, the Pony.ai Institute of Artificial Intelligence will also advance new frontiers in AI research while contributing to the ever-growing base of foundational research. The Institute will be instrumental in attracting top AI talent to the region as well as laying the groundwork for autonomous vehicle technology in the region and beyond.
Prior to joining the team at Pony.ai, Dr. Li was Technical Chief of Uber ATG's machine learning platform. There, Dr. Li drove the strategy for areas such as autonomous driving, machine learning platform and artificial intelligence. Before Uber ATG, Dr. Li spent 14 years at Bell Labs studying foundational technology in areas of artificial intelligence and machine learning systems. Dr. Li is an IEEE and ACM Fellow, and holds a PhD in Computer Science from Cornell University. He joins Pony.ai as Chief Scientist and will play a critical role in leading and executing technology development.
In addition to Dr. Yao, Honorary Dean of the Institute, and Dr. Li, Associate Dean, the Institute’s faculty boasts similarly deep and vast experience in the field of AI research. The faculty includes Xiaokang Yang, Deputy Dean at the School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering of Shanghai Jiaotong University and Min Xu, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). Qifeng Chen, Assistant Professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Cewu Lu, Assistant Professor at Shanghai Jiaotong University will both serve as visiting professors to the Pony.ai Institute of Artificial Intelligence.
In partnership with the Nansha government and under the leadership of these exceptional technical minds, the Institute will undoubtedly be a driving force for breakthroughs in AI research, development and applications.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/b830af83-e385-44a5-a43b-cfeb9659ceb8