SHANGHAI: China’s capital city has given the green light to tech giant Baidu Inc. to test self-driving cars on its streets, indicating strong support for the budding sector even as the industry reels from a fatal accident in the US.
Beijing’s move is an important step as China looks to bolster its position in the global race for autonomous vehicles, where regulatory concerns have come into the spotlight since the crash earlier this month.
The accident in Tempe, Arizona, involving an Uber self-driving car, was the first death attributed to a self-driving car operating in autonomous mode, and has ramped up pressure on the industry to prove its software and sensors are safe.
Beijing has given Baidu, best known as China’s version of search engine Google, a permit to test its autonomous vehicles on 33 roads spanning around 105 kilometers (65 miles) in the city’s less-populated suburbs, the firm said in a statement.
Baidu is leading China’s push in driverless technology, with Beijing keen to keep up with global rivals such as Waymo, the self-driving arm of Google parent Alphabet, and Tesla. It has a major self-driving project called Apollo.
“With supportive policies, we believe that Beijing will become a rising hub for the autonomous driving industry,” Baidu Vice President Zhao Cheng said.
Two people close to DiDi Chuxing, China’s dominant ride-hailing company which is also working on self-driving, said
earlier this week firms developing autonomous vehicles were not likely to slow down plans for testing and developing.
“I am quite positive on the potential of the technology because autonomous technology makes vehicles far less prone to accidents than human drivers,” one of the people said. Didi declined to comment.
Earlier this month, China issued licenses to car makers allowing self-driving vehicles to be road tested in Shanghai, which included Shanghai-based SAIC Motor Corp. and electric
vehicle start-up NIO.
However, regulations in the sector are struggling to keep pace with rapid growth and the growing numbers of firms wanting to carry out tests on public roads.
Baidu CEO Robin Li tested his firm’s driverless car on Beijing’s roads last July, causing controversy as there were no rules for such a test at the time. The firm hopes to get self-driving cars on to the roads in China by 2019.
Baidu said that before conducting tests on public roads, autonomous vehicles using its Apollo system would go through simulation tests as well as trials on closed courses.
Baidu gets green light to test driverless cars on Beijing streets
Baidu gets green light to test driverless cars on Beijing streets
Closing Bell: Saudi main index slips to close at 11,228
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index slipped on Sunday, lost 23.17 points, or 0.21 percent, to close at 11,228.64.
The total trading turnover of the benchmark index was SR2.99 billion ($797 million), as 170 of the stocks advanced and 82 retreated.
On the other hand, the Kingdom’s parallel market Nomu gained 449.38 points, or 1.90 percent, to close at 24,093.12. This comes as 43 of the stocks advanced while 27 retreated.
The MSCI Tadawul Index lost 6.07 points, or 0.40 percent, to close at 1,511.36.
The best-performing stock of the day was Obeikan Glass Co., whose share price surged 7.54 percent to SR27.66.
Other top performers included Alamar Foods Co., whose share price rose 6.80 percent to SR47.10, as well as Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Co., whose share price climbed 6.79 percent to SR5.66.
Saudi Investment Bank recorded the steepest drop, falling 3.21 percent to SR13.56.
Jahez International Co. for Information System Technology also saw its share price fall 3.15 percent to SR13.55.
Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Co. declined 2.78 percent to SR7.34.
On the announcements front, Tanmiah Food Co. reported its annual financial results for the period ending Dec. 31. According to a Tadawul statement, the company recorded a net loss of SR18.8 million, compared with a net profit of SR95.8 million a year earlier.
The net loss was mainly due to ongoing market challenges that resulted in continued pricing pressures in fresh poultry, inflationary cost pressures, higher financing expenses, and depreciation and ramp-up costs from new facilities, partially offset by increased production volumes and cost-optimization initiatives.
Tanmiah Food Co. ended the session at SR58.20, up 3.72 percent.
United International Holding Co., also known as Tas’heel, announced its annual financial results for the period ending Dec. 31. A bourse filing showed the company recorded a net profit of SR273.64 million in 2025, up 23.05 percent from 2024, primarily driven by a 23.4 percent rise in revenues. The revenue growth helped lift gross profit by 23.7 percent.
Tas’heel ended the session at SR146.80, down 0.28 percent.
