Baidu believes it has the tech edge in China's self-driving race

Hong Kong

BAIDU Inc expects to have the edge in autonomous driving after years of running China's largest search engine armed it with expertise in machine learning and mapping.

The Internet giant is sticking to a plan to have self-driving cars ply China's roads by 2018, and then mass production by 2020. The company will focus on its home market despite road conditions there being much more complex than in developed countries, chief financial officer Jennifer Li told the Bloomberg Markets Most Influential Summit in Hong Kong.