You don’t “Google it” in China, you “Baidu it.” Baidu’s search engine reigns supreme in China and like Google, its products and services are not just limited to online search. The company has also been working on self-driving cars and today it confirmed that it will soon be testing its self-driving cars in Google’s backyard.
Baidu has announced today that it has received a self-driving car testing permit from California’s Department of Motor Vehicles. This means that one big hurdle in the company’s way has now been removed. It can finally start testing its self-driving cars in the United States.
California’s DMV has already given similar permits to other companies working on self-driving cars, the list includes the likes of Mercedes-Benz, Delphi Automotive, BMW, Honda, Ford, Faraday Future, and others.
The company did confirm earlier this year that it’s creating a team of around 100 engineers who will be based in Silicon Valley. The team will be exclusively working on self-driving cars. Baidu says that the team is working now and that the permit it has received from California’s DMV will enable them to test the cars.
“We will start testing our autonomous driving technologies on public roads very soon in California,” confirmed Jing Wang, who is a senior vice president at Baidu and also the general manager of its Autonomous Driving Unit.
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