Baidu's driverless car completes road test

BEIJING - Chinese search engine giant Baidu announced on Friday that its driverless car has finished road tests and succeeded in automatic driving in mixed road conditions.

The test vehicle left the Baidu building in Beijing Zhongguancun Science Park and drove to the Olympic Forest Park via the G7 Beijing-Urumqi highway and the Fifth Ring Road before returning via the same route.

The vehicle reached a top speed of 100km/hr during the test, according to the company.

Baidu said the test was completed with a driver in the car who would take control of the vehicle in case of emergency.

Launched in 2013, the company's driverless car project is based on the core "Baidu car brain" technology, which includes high-precision electronic mapping, positioning and decision-making systems.

"Automatic driving faces challenges in a variety of driving conditions such as bad weather and congestion," said Wang Jin, senior vice president of Baidu.

"It is a great challenge to test in Beijing, a city with so many complicated road conditions, but luckily we made it," said Wang.

Baidu announced its plan to develop a driverless car in June. It has previously worked on "semi-autonomous" cars with German automaker BMW.

The driverless car is scheduled to make its debut at the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen Township in east China's Zhejiang province from Dec.16 to 18.

IT companies such as Google and Apple are working with auto manufacturers including Toyota and Tesla to develop their own driverless cars. In May 2014, Google presented a concept for a driverless car without a steering wheel or pedals and unveiled a fully functioning prototype in December of that year.