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Baidu Leads Wave of Autonomous-Car Tests in China
Changsha and Guangzhou have approved testing licenses for about 70 autonomous vehicles spread among 10 companies.
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City authorities in Changsha and Guangzhou have approved testing licenses for about 70 autonomous vehicles spread among 10 companies.
About 40 companies have been approved nationwide, with tech giant Baidu Inc. accounting for more than half the 183 vehicle licenses. Baidu, which began testing self-driving cars in 2015, is leading the 130-member Apollo consortium to develop an open-source platform for related technologies.
Baidu captured 45 of the licenses in Changsha, which is the capital of China’s southern Hunan province. Startup WeRide.ai secured 20 licenses in Guangzhou, where it plans to launch an autonomous taxi service later this year.
Among the other companies that were approved for autonomous vehicle testing in Changsha and/or Guangzhou were AutoX, Inceptio, Mercedes-Benz and Poni.ai.
Beijing and Shanghai also allow testing of autonomous vehicles for approved companies. Highways designed for autonomous vehicle are being built in Beijing and Changsha.
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