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BEIJING / SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Ford Motor Co and Baidu Inc. on Wednesday launched a two-year project to test autonomous vehicles on Chinese roads, as part of a global race for automakers and Web companies. to develop autonomous vehicle technology.
The project will start testing on designated roads in Beijing by the end of the year and possibly in other Chinese cities, the two companies said in a statement.
The vehicles will be able to operate autonomously under certain conditions by the end of the project development and testing process, they said.
At the end of the trial period, the project will achieve so-called Tier 4 technology for autonomous vehicles, or autonomous driving, but not under all conditions. This is the second rank after level 5, which describes the vehicles that should be able to navigate the roads without driver intervention.
Ford and Baidu, China's leading search engine operator that also plays a leading role in self-driving technologies in the country, announced in June that they would develop connected services, the company said. 39, artificial intelligence and digital marketing in China.
The US manufacturer, struggling with a slowdown in sales in China, is a founding member of the Apollo Committee, an advisory group of Baidu's Apollo open platform autonomous driving platform.
The Chinese capital gave the green light to German automaker Daimler AG to test autonomous cars on the roads in July, making it the first international car maker to get such a license in Beijing.
(Report of Yilei Sun in Beijing and Adam Jourdan in Shanghai, edited by Neil Fullick)
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