Chinese startup WeRide begins testing fully driverless cars

Company first in China to test on open road as battle for funds heats up

20200710 WeRide

China's WeRide will be only the second autonomous driving company to test its vehicles on the open road, behind Google's Waymo. © Reuters

NIKKI SUN, Nikkei Staff writer

HONG KONG -- Chinese autonomous driving startup WeRide said Friday that it has started testing driverless vehicles on the open road, a milestone previously only reached by Waymo, the autonomous-driving project built on technology developed in U.S. tech giant Google's laboratories.

WeRide, backed by an auto alliance formed by Renault, Nissan Motor and Mitsubishi Motors, said it is testing about 10 cars in a limited area in the southeastern city of Guangzhou, with the help of people at the company's control center.

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