The cars are loaded up with goods from e-commerce platform Yamibuy and hand-delivered to customers by the safety driver, as current rules prevent driverless vehicles from being allowed on the roads without a human operator on board.
Around 90 per cent of shoppers in the US are staying at home due to the pandemic, leading to surging demand for home deliveries.
Pony.ai, which has backing from Japanese automaker Toyota, was valued at over $3bn in February, having first deployed its robo-taxi fleet in November 2019.
Prior to the lockdown the fleet was taking around 150 rides per day in Irvine, which has a population of approximately 200,000 people.
James Peng, cofounder of Pony.ai, said in an interview that the pandemic could help to accelerate driverless technologies.
“As autonomous driving is launched at scale, it can provide a much safer way of transportation with less human contact in terms of both goods and delivery,” he said. “It’s certainly possible...