China is jockeying for a leadership position in autonomous driving, and recent developments from internet giant Baidu put it one step closer to that target. Dubbed the ‘Google of China’, Baidu has been working on self-driving technology for the past three years, collaborating with more than 100 partners as part of the Apollo open-source autonomous driving platform project. Baidu’s former Chief Operating Officer Qi Lu previously called the platform the “Android of the autonomous driving industry, but more open and powerful.”

Earlier this year, Baidu Apollo announced the successful development of “the world’s first production-ready” autonomous driving computer, the Apollo Computing Unit (ACU). …