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It’s a fund looking to make money from green investing.
The inclusive, actively managed Vanguard Baillie Gifford Global Positive Impact Stock Fund (VBPIX) is an environmental, social and governance product that bundles companies with positive, inclusive and sustainable intentions. 

“It’s really a fund that’s going to be investing in global equities looking to deliver long-term outperformers by doing so in investing in companies that are contributing positively to really advancing and solving some of the world’s most challenging problems, whether those be environmental or social or otherwise,” Matt Piro, Vanguard’s global head of ESG product, told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” on Monday.
While the ETF denotes socially responsible investing, that particular theme is sparking questions. The Securities and Exchange Commission has expressed concerns about the current unestablished state of ESG fund disclosure requirements across the entire industry. The agency has proposed two rule changes for the sector.
“It is important that investors have consistent and comparable disclosures about asset managers’ ESG strategies so they can understand what data underlies funds’ claims and choose the right investments for them,” SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in a May statement.
Companies held in Vanguard’s positive impact stock fund include ASML, Taiwan Semiconductor, Moderna, John Deere and Tesla, which the S&P 500 removed from its ESG index in May. Tesla’s S&P DJI ESG score dropped as a result of “codes of business conduct” and deficient low carbon strategy, as well as “claims of racial discrimination and poor working conditions at Tesla’s Fremont factory,” according to the Indexology blog.
Piro contends Vanguard’s design principles look at investment outcomes, as well as client preferences. The investment management company develops various ESG products to satisfy a range of consumer preferences, he said.

“We absolutely think this positive impact fund is well done from an active standpoint because we want to deliver on both an outperformance objective while investing in those companies that contributed positively,” Piro said.
Vanguard’s exclusionary funds adhere to strict guidelines, keeping out companies that engage in “the types of business activities that clients may not want their money invested in,” according to Piro.
The Vanguard ESG U.S. Stock ETF, for example, excludes companies with engagement in alcohol and tobacco, weapons, adult entertainment, and fossil fuels, among other activities and standards.
Do ESG funds have a future?
Many of today’s investors are “sustainability minded,” said Jon Hale, global head of sustainability research at Morningstar, in the same interview. In turn, he believes the asset management industry is receiving more demand for impact investing opportunities. 
“Sustainability happens when we make decisions that both meet our own needs but don’t compromise the ability of others in future generations to meet their own needs,” he said. “It should come as no surprise that, with more people being sustainability minded today, they would want an approach to investing that has sustainability in mind.”
Hale believes “the SEC proposal is on the right track,” suggesting a need for increased transparency in the ESG fund space – proving the sustainability of related products and confirming consumers aren’t getting “greenwashed version[s].”
The SEC did not respond to a request for comment.
The Vanguard Baillie Gifford Global Positive Impact Stock Fund came to fruition in mid-July after a restructuring of the Baillie Gifford Positive Change Equities Fund, its predecessor. The Vanguard fund is up about 6% since its adjustment this summer.
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In this photo illustration, a silhouetted woman holds a smartphone with the Meta Platforms, Inc. logo displayed on the screen.
Rafael Henrique | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.
Bausch Health – Trading in the pharmaceutical company’s shares was halted after the stock dipped 50%. A Delaware federal court judge issued an oral order regarding patent litigation over Xifaxan, Bausch’s drug that treats irritable bowel syndrome and diarrhea. The order could pave the way for generic competition for the drug in the late 2024 to 2025 time frame, according to JPMorgan. The bank downgraded Bausch on the litigation update, dropping its rating to neutral from overweight.

Wingstop – The fast casual restaurant chain’s shares surged 20.18% following an earnings beat in the second quarter. Wingstop posted adjusted earnings of 45 cents per share, and topped estimates of 36 cents, according to Refinitiv. The company missed revenue estimates but reaffirmed its guidance for the full year.
Meta Platforms – Shares of the Facebook parent company slid 5.22% on the back of disappointing quarterly results. Meta Platforms posted a miss on the top and bottom lines in the second quarter as digital advertising slowed. The company also issued a weak forecast for the current period.
Comcast – The cable and entertainment giant’s shares slid 9.13% despite the company posting strong quarterly earnings and revenue. Comcast failed to add broadband subscribers in the quarter for the first time ever. The company said it lost 30,000 broadband subscribers this month alone.
Qualcomm – Shares of the chipmaker fell 4.54% after the company issued guidance for the current quarter that was short of consensus expectations. Qualcomm’s forecast suggested that the company’s handset sales growth would slow during its fiscal fourth quarter, reflecting a decline in smartphone demand. Still, the company’s third-quarter earnings slightly beat Wall Street expectations.
Stanley Black & Decker – Stanley Black & Decker’s shares plunged 16.07% after the company reported quarterly earnings that missed both top and bottom-line Wall Street estimates. The company also cut its full-year forecast.

Teladoc — Shares plummeted 17.67% after the telemedicine company issued a weak outlook in its earnings report. Teladoc reported a $3 billion noncash goodwill impairment charge.
Charter Communications – Charter fell 8.48% after the cable company was hit with a hefty legal fine. A court in Texas found the company liable for $7 billion in damages and responsible for an employee who robbed and murdered a customer in 2019, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Solar stocks – Shares of companies that make solar panels or focus on clean energy surged after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., announced they’d reached a deal on an ambitious climate bill. Sunrun jumped 29.97%, and Sunnova was up 27.93%. First Solar gained 15.29%. Enphase rose 7.26% and Constellation Energy added 16.32%.
Etsy – Etsy jumped 9.86% after the e-commerce company beat estimates for quarterly earnings. The company’s quarterly revenue grew more than 10% even amid tough economic conditions.
Southwest – Shares of Southwest Airlines slumped 6.43% after the company said it expects capacity constraints for the rest of the year and issued a mixed guidance. Its earnings report, however, beat analyst expectations.
Spirit Airlines – Shares of the discount airline climbed 5.6% after JetBlue agreed to a $3.8 billion deal to buy Spirit. The deal comes after a bidding war between JetBlue and Frontier Airlines. If the deal is approved by regulators, the combined airline would be the fifth largest in the U.S. Shares of JetBlue dipped 0.36%.
Honeywell – Honeywell gained 3.69% after reporting quarterly earnings that beat analyst expectations for profit and revenue. The company’s sales beat estimates in every segment.
Harley-Davidson – Shares of Harley Davidson jumped 7.76% after it reported quarterly results that beat Wall Street’s expectations. The company also reiterated its full-year guidance, even after it had a two-week halt in production during the quarter due to an issue with a supplier.
Disclosure: Comcast is the owner of NBCUniversal, parent company of CNBC.
— CNBC’s Samantha Subin, Sarah Min, Jesse Pound and Tanaya Macheel contributed reporting

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Take a look at some of the biggest movers in the premarket:
Spirit Airlines (SAVE) – Spirit shares rose 3.9% in premarket trading after it agreed to be acquired by JetBlue (JBLU) for $33.50 per share in cash. That follows yesterday’s rejection by shareholders of Spirit’s previous deal to merge with Frontier Airlines parent Frontier Group (ULCC). Frontier shares added 1.2% while JetBlue stock was little changed.

Stanley Black & Decker (SWK) – The tool maker’s stock slumped 12.3% in the premarket after quarterly results missed analysts’ estimates on the top and bottom lines, and the company slashed its full-year forecast. Stanley Black & Decker said the softening of demand accelerated during the last part of the quarter, although it does expect demand to normalize.
Solar stocks – Shares of solar companies popped in the premarket after Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin agreed to support a bill that would grant a variety of clean energy incentives. Sunrun (RUN) surged 11.2%, Sunnova (NOVA) rallied 12.9%, First Solar (FSLR) jumped 9.9% and SunPower (SPWR) leaped 11.9%.
Comcast (CMCSA) – Comcast slid 5.7% in premarket trading despite beating top and bottom line estimates for the second quarter. The NBCUniversal parent saw no growth in broadband subscribers, which it attributed to strong pandemic signups pulling new business from future quarters.
Southwest Airlines (LUV) – The airline reported better-than-expected profit and revenue for the second quarter, and said demand continued to be strong. The stock sank 6.1% in the premarket, however, after it issued mixed guidance and a prediction of continued rising costs.
Harley-Davidson (HOG) – The motorcycle maker’s shares jumped 5% in the premarket after it reported better-than-expected second-quarter profit and revenue. Harley also reaffirmed its prior full-year guidance despite a two-week production suspension during the quarter due to a supplier issue.

Meta Platforms (META) – Meta shares slid 4.2% in the premarket after the Facebook and Instagram parent reported lower-than-expected earnings and revenue for the second quarter. Meta’s decline in revenue was its first ever, amid a pullback in digital advertising.
Ford (F) – Ford rallied 6.3% in premarket trading as it beat profit and revenue estimates for the second quarter. Ford earned 68 cents per share, compared to a consensus estimate of 45 cents a share, as the automaker had more cars to sell with prices remaining elevated.
Qualcomm (QCOM) – Qualcomm shares sank in premarket action despite a top-and-bottom-line beat for the chip maker. Qualcomm cut its forecast for smartphone shipments and issued a weaker-than-expected current-quarter outlook.
Best Buy (BBY) – Best Buy lost 3.8% in the premarket after the electronics retailer cut its full-year sales and profit forecast. Best Buy said demand for consumer electronics is softening due to higher prices for food and fuel.
Etsy (ETSY) – Etsy shares rallied 9.1% in premarket trading after the online marketplace operator reported better-than-expected quarterly sales and profit. Etsy was helped by an increase in ad sales as well as higher transaction fees.
Teladoc Health (TDOC) – The telehealth company’s stock plummeted 25.3% in premarket action as it posted a wider than expected quarterly loss due to a $3 billion impairment charge.

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JPMorgan Chase has hired a quantum computing expert to be the bank’s global head for quantum communications and cryptography, according to a memo obtained by CNBC.
Charles Lim, an assistant professor at the National University of Singapore, will be focused on exploring next-generation computing technology in secure communications, according to the memo from Marco Pistoia, who runs the bank’s global technology applied research group.
New forms of cryptography and secure messaging are needed ahead of “quantum supremacy,” which is the point when quantum computers will vastly outperform traditional computers.

Dr. Charles Lim, Global Head of Quantum Communications and Cryptography, JP Morgan Chase
Courtesy: JP Morgan Chase

JPMorgan Chase has hired a Singapore-based quantum computing expert to be the bank’s global head for quantum communications and cryptography, according to a memo obtained by CNBC.
Charles Lim, an assistant professor at the National University of Singapore, will be focused on exploring next-generation computing technology in secure communications, according to the memo from Marco Pistoia, who runs the bank’s global technology applied research group.

Lim is a “recognized worldwide leader” in the area of quantum-powered communications networks, according to Pistoia.
Hired from IBM in early 2020, Pistoia has built a team at JPMorgan focused on quantum computing and other nascent technologies. Unlike classical computers, which store information as either zeros or ones, quantum computing hinges on quantum physics. Instead of being binary, qubits can simultaneously be a combination of both zero and one, as well as any value in between.

‘New horizons’

The futuristic technology, which involves keeping hardware at super-cold temperatures and is years away from commercial use, promises the ability to solve problems far beyond the reach of today’s traditional computers. Technology giants including Alphabet and IBM are racing towards building a reliable quantum computer, and financial firms including JPMorgan and Visa are exploring possible uses for it.
“New horizons are going to become possible, things we didn’t think would be possible before,” Pistoia said in a JPMorgan podcast interview.
In finance, machine-learning algorithms will improve to help fraud detection on transactions and other areas that involve “prohibitive complexity,” including portfolio optimization and options pricing, he said.

Drug development, materials science for batteries and other areas will be transformed by the dramatically advanced computing, he added.
But if and when the advanced computing technology becomes real, the encryption techniques that underpin the world’s communications and financial networks could immediately be rendered useless. That has spurred the study of next-generation quantum-resistant communication networks, which is Lim’s area of expertise.

‘Quantum supremacy’

New forms of cryptography and secure messaging are needed ahead of the so-called “quantum supremacy,” which is the point when quantum computers are able to perform calculations beyond the scope of traditional computers in any reasonable timeframe, Pistoia said during the podcast.
That could happen by the end of the decade, he said.
An earlier moment will be the “quantum advantage,” which is when the new computers are more powerful and accurate than classical computers, but the two will be competitive. That could happen in as soon as two to three years from now, he said.
“Even now that quantum computers are not yet that powerful, we don’t have so much time left,” Pistoia said in the podcast. That’s because bad actors are already preserving private communications to attempt to decrypt it later when the technology allows for it, he said.
Lim will “pursue both foundational and applied research in quantum information, focusing on innovative digital solutions that will enhance the security, efficiency, and robustness of financial and banking services,” Pistoia said in the memo.
Lim is a recipient of the National Research Foundation Fellowship in Singapore and won the National Young Scientist Award in 2019 for his work in quantum cryptography, said Pistoia.
Last year, Lim was asked to lead his country’s effort to create quantum-resistant digital solutions, and he has been involved in international efforts to standardize quantum security techniques, Pistoia added.

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Economists’ interest in land has waxed and waned over time. For the political economists of the 18th and 19th centuries, it was central to understanding the world. They believed that the distribution of rents from land ownership could explain the yawning gaps between the rich and poor, and all sorts of other economic ills. Economists cared less about land in the 20th century. Since the turn of the millennium, however, they have increasingly debated the impact that restrictive zoning laws have on the economic output of cities. The global financial crisis sparked an increase in research on the consequences of property slumps. Banks’ balance-sheets tend to weaken, and worried homeowners spend less, potentially triggering a recession. America’s housing crash during 2007-09 in particular was much studied. In recent years another strand of research has emerged, which, rather like the political economists of yore, attributes many long-standing economic ills to land. It explores how high and rising land prices affect lending, investment and ultimately productivity, and much of it looks closely at China’s long property boom. The worrying conclusion is that high and rising property prices can also have damaging economic effects, by crowding out productive investment and leading to a misallocation of capital. In the most extreme cases, inflated land prices may already be the cause of a protracted slowdown in productivity growth. Real estate is the largest asset class in the world. In 2020 it made up around 68% of the world’s non-financial assets (which includes plant and machinery as well as intangibles, such as intellectual property). Land, rather than the structures built on top of it, accounts for slightly over half of that 68%. As values have ballooned, the share of land in non-financial assets has increased sharply in some countries (though few report the data). In Britain, for instance, it went from 39% in 1995 to 56% in 2020. Because land can easily be valued and cannot be hidden or broken, it is good collateral to borrow against. So when prices are rising, as they have in most places for much of the past few decades, the initial effect is to boost lending and economic activity. Households can use their increasingly valuable property to borrow at lower interest rates than they otherwise would. Land-owning firms, too, can access finance more easily. Fatter asset holdings also make people feel more comfortable spending money. But the use of land as collateral has harmful effects, too, especially in places where banks play a big role in financing companies. Firms’ ability to borrow tends to be determined by their existing assets, rather than their productive potential. And those that own land find it much easier to borrow from banks than those, say, with lots of intangible assets. A paper published in 2018 by Sebastian Doerr of the Bank for International Settlements found that listed American firms with more property collateral were able to borrow and invest more than their competitors, even though they were less productive. These effects were also evident in Spain just before the global financial crisis. In research published last year, Sergi Basco of Universitat Barcelona and David Lopez-Rodriguez and Enrique Moral-Benito of the Bank of Spain noted that property-owning manufacturers in the country tended to receive more bank credit than other firms. Rising property prices can also discourage productive lending, and lead to capital being misallocated. When housing markets boom, banks tend to engage in more mortgage lending. But because lenders face capital constraints, this is often accompanied by reduced lending to businesses. One paper, published in 2018 and looking at data from America between 1988 and 2006, found that a one-standard-deviation increase in house prices in areas where a bank has branches reduced lending growth to firms that borrow from the same bank by 42%. The total investment undertaken by the affected firms fell by 21%. Such crowding-out effects may have been sizeable in other places too, considering that banks around the rich world have sharply increased their mortgage lending. Across 17 advanced economies, mortgages’ share of total bank loans climbed from 32% in 1952 to 58% in 2016 (the latest year for which data are available). Whatever the effects of high land prices in the West, the scale of the problem in China appears even bigger, given that the country’s investors have a huge appetite for real estate. A range of recent research suggests that China’s high land prices shift bank lending away from land-light manufacturers and reduce spending on research and development by listed firms; they also appear to lead to a reallocation of managerial talent towards the property sector. One especially striking result comes from a paper published in 2019 by Harald Hau of the University of Geneva and Difei Ouyang of the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, based on data from manufacturers in 172 Chinese cities. It concludes that a 50% increase in property prices would raise borrowing costs, reduce investment and productivity, and result in a 35.5% decline in the firms’ value-added output. Hitting home The conclusion that high and rising property prices can throttle economic activity carries important implications for how policymakers should treat investment in land and housing. Encouraging much more housebuilding, for instance, would help deflate collateral values. Restricting the ownership of multiple properties would alter the distribution of that collateral. And limiting the amount of mortgage lending banks can do might lead more credit to flow to productive purposes. A more ambitious idea would be to tax land values, which, by lowering the market value of land, might reduce its attractiveness as collateral. Such a tax was, funnily enough, the goal of many 18th- and 19th-century reformers as they sought a more equal society. A new obsession with land could well revive an old idea. ■Read more from Free Exchange, our column on economics:Should central banks’ inflation targets be raised? (Jul 23rd)Inflation shows both the value and limits of monetary-policy rules (Jul 14th)Are central banks in emerging markets now less of a slave to the Fed? (Jul 9th) For more expert analysis of the biggest stories in economics, business and markets, sign up to Money Talks, our weekly newsletter. More

When china’s Politburo, the 25-member committee that oversees the Communist Party, met this time last year to ponder the economy, China’s rulers seemed quite confident. Their annual growth target was in easy reach and they were keen to crack down further on the country’s overstretched property developers. As The Economist went to press, the Politburo was preparing to meet again. But the economy looks quite different. China’s attempts to stamp out any outbreak of covid-19 have crippled manufacturing intermittently, and consumption more persistently. Distressed developers have stopped working on pre-sold flats—and aggrieved homebuyers have refused to pay their mortgages until construction resumes.This has put China’s rulers in a pickle. They seem determined to stick to their zero-covid policy. And they would no doubt love to cling to their official gdp growth target of “around 5.5%”. But it has become clear they cannot do both. Unless, of course, they fiddle the growth figures.That is not beyond them. But there is so far little sign of it. The most recent data showed that the economy grew by only 0.4% in the second quarter, compared with a year earlier. This was not only bad, but worse than expected by private forecasters. In a large teleconference in May, Li Keqiang, China’s prime minister, urged local officials to do more for the economy. But he also cautioned them to seek truth from facts, abiding by statistical regulations.When he was himself a local official in the north-eastern province of Liaoning, Mr Li sought the truth about the provincial economy from three facts in particular: the electricity it consumed, the cargo travelling on its railways and the amount of loans disbursed by its banks. These indicators, he felt, were more reliable than the official gdp figures. In a similar spirit, John Fernald, Eric Hsu and Mark Spiegel of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco have shown that a judicious combination of eight alternative indicators (including electricity consumption, rail cargo, retail sales and consumer expectations) does a reasonably good job of tracking China’s economic ups and downs. Seven of these indicators (all except consumer confidence) have already been updated for the three months from April to June. They can therefore be used to cross-check the latest official growth figure.The chart shows our attempt to do that, using much the same method as Mr Fernald and his co-authors. Our calculation is not designed to show if China has systematically overstated gdp growth over the past two decades. But it can detect if reported growth is nearer its underlying trend than it should be, given how far the other seven indicators have strayed from their own usual trajectories. The awful data on retail sales and construction in the second quarter were, for example, far outside the norm. But these shocking figures were partly offset by respectable numbers for rail freight and exports.In all, these indicators suggest the official growth measure was honest. (They would be consistent with gdp growth that is, if anything, a little higher than the 0.4% reported.) Our approach cannot reveal every kind of statistical skulduggery, but it does suggest China made no extra effort to fudge the figures in the second quarter, despite the unusual ugliness of the time. China’s rulers want to fight the downturn, the virus and doubts about their country’s data. They are doing a better job on the last two counts than on the first. ■For more expert analysis of the biggest stories in economics, business and markets, sign up to Money Talks, our weekly newsletter. More

It is telling that one of the best books about financial markets was published almost a century ago. “Reminiscences of a Stock Operator”, by Edwin Lefevre, is a fictionalised account of the exploits of Jesse Livermore, a speculator. Livermore made a fortune selling the market short during the financial panic of 1907. He would repeat the trick in 1929. The book captures a particular time—of bucket shops, insider pools and dandy tips on Western Union or American Steel. But it is also timeless.As this writer finishes a four-year stint as Buttonwood, the one tentative conclusion he draws from the experience is something that Livermore realised a century ago: there is nothing new on Wall Street. What happens today in the markets has happened before and will happen again. Every extreme of greed or fear has a precedent. Technology changes, but people do not.The beginning for this Buttonwood was May 2018. At the time there was a good deal of optimism among American and European asset managers about business prospects in China. There was much talk about its “Wild West” stockmarket—with lots of retail trading on tips and a rapid turnover of shares. Rich-world entrants fancied they would add a dash of professionalism. But instead of China’s market becoming more American, the reverse happened. In 2020 there was a surge in new accounts at no-fee brokers, notably Robinhood, catering to small investors in America. A gaggle of social-media pundits emerged to mobilise this new army of speculators. They piled into tech darlings, such as Tesla, but also bombed-out stocks, such as GameStop, a video-games retailer. This “meme-stock” craze seemed new, but it wasn’t. What it most resembled was the bucket shops of early-20th-century America, where Livermore first learned to read the markets. Here ordinary punters exchanged tips and could bet on the direction of favoured stocks for a tiny initial outlay. The Robinhood crowd, though they had better technology, had similar preferences. They were keen on call options on stocks that had the characteristics of long-odds bets. As with bucket-shop punts, these options mostly expire worthless, but can reap a spectacular profit if the share price surges.Manias, scams and iffy schemes are recurring evils. “I used to think that people were more gullible in the 1860s and 1870s than the 1900s,” says the narrator of “Reminiscences”. But Livermore only had to pick up his newspaper to read about the latest Ponzi scheme or crooked broker. More recently, there has been the Wirecard fraud, the Archegos blow-up, the shell-company boom and any number of dodgy digital currencies. This year has so far been a rejoinder to such excesses. As Livermore knew well, tighter money and a giddy stockmarket are a dangerous mix. His big short in 1907 was in response to signals from the money markets, which were “megaphoning warnings to the entire world”. But they were not the only warnings he ever heard. In the world of “Reminiscences”, bull markets are marked by the “calamity howling” of “old-stagers [who] said everybody—except themselves—had gone crazy”. Doom-mongers are forever with us. Indeed, there is a kind of punditry that echoes the millenarian sects of medieval Europe, the adherents of which believed they were living in the “last days”. It anticipates an endgame in which all excesses will be washed from the markets. Perhaps such a reckoning is already in train. But it cannot be the endgame, because the game never ends. If history is anything to go by, a big bust would merely set the stage for another phase of play. Injuries heal with time. Memories of the last brutal bear market eventually fade. The unceasing contest between fear and greed resumes. The thoughtful investor has a lot to reckon with, and that won’t change either. There are constant judgments to be made about company managers, business strategy, economic policy, politics and geopolitics—as well as the opinions and likely reactions of other investors, who may or may not be as thoughtful.And as Livermore knew well, any investor has also to fight the “expensive enemies within himself”. This endless wrestling with powerful emotions, such as hope, doubt and fear, is a big part of what makes Wall Street so fascinating. It has been a great privilege to watch the unfolding drama from this perch and to try to make sense of it all. The honour now passes to others. Thank you so much for reading. Read more from Buttonwood, our columnist on financial markets:The Fed put morphs into a Fed call (Jul 23rd)Why markets really are less certain than they used to be (Jul 14th)Crypto’s last man standing (Jul 9th)For more expert analysis of the biggest stories in economics, business and markets, sign up to Money Talks, our weekly newsletter. More

Self-driving tech start-up Pony.ai announced Thursday it plans to mass produce autonomous driving trucks in China with equipment manufacturing giant Sany Heavy Industry.
Small-scale deliveries are set to begin this year and next, with mass production set to start in 2024, according to a release.
Companies from Daimler to Walmart are testing self-driving trucks.

Self-driving tech start-up Pony.ai announced Thursday it plans to mass produce autonomous driving trucks with equipment manufacturing giant Sany Heavy Industry.

BEIJING — Self-driving tech start-up Pony.ai announced Thursday it plans to mass produce autonomous driving trucks in China with equipment manufacturing giant Sany Heavy Industry.
Annual production is set to reach about 10,000 trucks “within a few years,” according to a press release. Small-scale deliveries are set to begin this year and next, with mass production due to start in 2024.

The trucks are slated to come with “Level 4” autonomous driving technology, which would allow full self-driving on highways and urban roads, according to Pony.ai. “L4” is part of an industry classification system that designates full self-driving under specific conditions.
Under current rules in China, the robotrucks won’t be able to operate fully autonomously.
Pony.ai said it only has testing permits in Beijing and Guangzhou for autonomous trucks. But the company said it expects to operate L4 trucks in China as regulations develop.
Pony.ai’s autonomous driving system uses the Nvidia Drive Orin chip, similar to several Chinese electric car companies that offer drivers assisted-driving technology.

Some, but not all, of the planned trucks will be “new energy vehicles,” a category that includes electric vehicles.

Pony.ai declined Thursday to share additional information about cost per truck and whether the trucks would only be available in China.
Sany has offices globally, while Pony.ai also operates in the U.S. The robotruck mass production deal is part of a strategic joint venture between Pony.ai and Sany Heavy Truck, a Sany subsidiary.
Analysts generally expect robotrucks to take off more quickly than robotaxis due to the more uniform nature of truck routes along highways. Daily truck drives typically last for hours versus far shorter taxi rides.

Read more about electric vehicles from CNBC Pro

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