China logs second-most miles in California self-driving tests

Baidu and compatriots rack up data but still trail far behind Waymo

Baidu's Apollo self-driving program is a national project backed by the Chinese government. © Reuters

SHUNSUKE TABETA and TAKESHI SHIRAISHI, Nikkei staff writers

March 8, 2019 05:27 JST

BEIJING/PALO ALTO, U.S. -- Chinese developers of self-driving cars have nearly doubled their presence in California road testing, where the pursuit has turned into a two-way race between the world's leading economies.

China claimed eight of the top 25 companies by kilometers driven last year, up from five in 2017, according to data compiled by Nikkei from reports submitted to California. The U.S. held the lead with 13.