It seems that California’s roads are about to get slightly more populated with self-driving cars, as according to reports, China’s Didi Chuxing has recently received a permit in which they will be allowed to test their self-driving cars in the state. This doesn’t come as a surprise as many companies have been expanding their tests to try and gather as much data as possible.
For those unfamiliar with Didi Chuxing, this is a Chinese company that is more or less known as Uber’s rival in China. In fact a couple of years ago, Uber had ceded their market share in China to Didi Chuxing by selling their business to the Chinese company. Also just like Uber, Didi Chuxing also started to dabble in self-driving cars and just a little over a year ago, opened a research lab in the US.
According to the DMV, a total of 53 companies have recently received their permits for self-driving cars on public roads. The list also mentions Apple which shouldn’t be surprising as it has been known that Apple is testing out the technology, although just like Apple, it is unclear as to what Didi Chuxing plans to use its self-driving tech for.
The company largely operates in China so it is unclear if them branching to the US could signal that they want to expand to the US market, or if they are simply looking to gather more data on self-driving cars from other drivers in different parts of the world.
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