Baidu receives driverless vehicle test permit in California

Chinese internet search giant Baidu Inc announced on Thursday it has been approved by the California Department of Motor Vehicles to test driverless vehicles on public roads.

The permit will allow Baidu to test three autonomous vehicles without a safety driver on designated streets within Sunnyvale in Santa Clara County. The company had obtained a permit to test its autonomous vehicles with safety drivers in the US state in 2016.

Baidu is the sixth company, following Waymo, Nuro, Zoox, Cruise and Shenzhen-headquartered AutoX, to receive a license of this kind in California. A total of 58 companies have permits to test autonomous vehicles with safety drivers, including major car manufacturers and tech giant Apple Inc.

The California permit is the latest approval for Baidu to test fully driverless vehicles. On Dec 7, Baidu Apollo was granted permission by Beijing transportation authorities to conduct fully driverless road tests. The announcement makes Baidu the first and only company permitted to conduct driverless tests on public streets in the capital of China.

In September, Baidu Apollo received permission to test driverless vehicles in Changsha, Hunan province.