Skip to Content
Smart cities

China is giving Daimler the keys to test self-driving cars on its roads

It's the first license to a non-Chinese company that permits public testing of robot cars in the country.

Some background: Autonomous-car testing in China is dominated by Baidu, the giant Chinese search firm, which has been developing robotic cars for about five years and testing its Apollo self-driving software since 2017.

The news: Daimler, the parent company of German car maker Mercedes Benz, announced Friday that it is the first foreign company to receive permission to test its cars in Beijing. To get the permit, the company’s vehicles—equipped with some of Baidu’s Apollo tech—went through extensive closed-course testing.

Why it matters: By getting into China early, Daimler will get firsthand experience of what it’s like to operate on the country’s roadways. It also gives Baidu a powerful vehicle partner, allowing it to focus on further refining Apollo.

This story first appeared in our daily tech newsletter, The Download. Sign up here.

Keep Reading

Most Popular

Scientists are finding signals of long covid in blood. They could lead to new treatments.

Faults in a certain part of the immune system might be at the root of some long covid cases, new research suggests.

Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.

And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.

OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora

The firm is sharing Sora with a small group of safety testers but the rest of us will have to wait to learn more.

Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.

Gmail, Docs, and more will now come with Gemini baked in. But Europeans will have to wait before they can download the app.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.