California DMV Grants Baidu Autonomous Vehicle Testing Permit

Baidu USA has been granted an Autonomous Vehicle Testing Permit by the California Department of Motor Vehicles, according to recent reports.

What that means, is that the Chinese firm Baidu (Baidu USA is a subsidiary) joins the likes of Google, Tesla, BMW, Ford, Mercedes-Benz, and some others in being granted the right to legally test autonomous driving technologies on the state’s extensive and geographically varied roads. The company is now the 15th to obtain such a permit in the Golden State.

The Senior Vice President of Baidu, and General Manager of the Autonomous Driving Unit, Jing Wang, commented: “We will start testing our autonomous driving technologies on public roads very soon in California. Baidu has already built a strong team in Silicon Valley to develop autonomous driving technologies, and being able to do road tests will greatly accelerate our progress.”

The research team that’s based in Silicon Valley (California) is accompanied by the firm’s other Baidu Autonomous Driving Unit offices in Shenzhen, Beijing, and Shanghai (China). Presumably, the firm is most interested in the Chinese and American markets, going by the locations of its research offices.

Baidu’s logo is … interesting.

We’ve covered news of Baidu’s entrance into the autonomous driving technology field quite a bit here at CleanTechnica, owing to the company’s great monetary resources and potential to make a strong impact on the market. For more information, see:

• Tech Giant Baidu Now Testing All-New Self-Driving EVs
• Baidu Takes Another Step Forward On Autonomous Driving
• Search Engine Giant Baidu Intent On Bringing Self-Driving Cars To Reality