Baidu enters race to dominate era of driverless cars

Beijing

WANG Jing bought his first car, a Dodge Shadow, with US$3,000 he scratched together working three part-time jobs in the US as a postgraduate student in Florida. These days, the senior vice-president in charge of Baidu Inc's autonomous driving efforts is far better paid. He's also a man on a mission: to push China to the forefront of the coming driverless-car era.

Baidu joins a crowded field. Google Inc, which started developing autonomous cars in 2009, has tested self-driving vehicles for more than 3.2 million kilometres and is considering making its self-driving car unit a standalone business under the Alphabet Inc corporate umbrella later this year.