Baidu gets permit to test self-driving cars in California

It is reported that Baidu has obtained permission to test self-driving cars in California and will carry out Apollo self-driving technology tests on urban roads in the state.

Currently, a total of 58 companies have obtained California's autonomous vehicle testing permits, including most major automakers and technology companies such as Apple. Baidu is the sixth company to obtain California's permit to test without a safety driver, which allows Baidu to test three fully autonomous vehicles on designated streets in Sunnyvale, Santa Clara County.

Baidu officially stated: "The new license obtained by Apollo this time allows us to conduct a series of tests on Lincoln MKZ platform driverless cars and Chrysler Pacifica platform driverless cars at any time within the city of Sunnyvale, Santa Clara County. By the way, Baidu is also the first company to obtain a license for autonomous driving technology testing issued by the local management department of California for two different vehicle platforms."

Baidu, China's leading search engine, has 500 self-driving cars under test in China and a number in the United States, but all are manned by safety drivers. The company has not said when it will begin fully driverless testing in California.

According to previous news, Baidu has deployed driverless vehicle tests that do not require safety officers in Changsha, Hunan and Beijing. At the same time, Baidu also provides driverless online car-hailing services to the public in Changsha, Beijing and Cangzhou, Hebei, but the vehicles used for this service are equipped with safety officers.

It is understood that although the original intention of designing self-driving cars is to eliminate the need for drivers, so far, most self-driving cars are equipped with a safety officer sitting in the driver's seat during testing. In the event of an emergency, the safety officer needs to take over control of the vehicle immediately.