Autonomous driving and AI developer AutoX has been granted a permit to conduct driverless tests by the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). It is the third company to be given permission to test vehicles without a safety driver in the US state.
Besides allowing AutoX to test without a safety driver present in the vehicle, the permit also allows for testing with passengers. The company said that as a first step, the operation will be conducted on surface roads in San Jose with a speed limit of up to 45mph in the area around PayPal’s headquarters.
AutoX noted that in the process of obtaining its Driverless Permit, it collaborated closely with the California DMV, California Highway Patrol, City of San Jose, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of the Department of Transportation (DOT), and third-party experts from California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology at UC Berkeley (UCB PATH).
AutoX has been authorized to test autonomous vehicles with safety drivers in California since 2017, and currently operates two research and development centres in San Jose and San Diego. It has carried out autonomous vehicle road tests and pilot projects in 13 cities around the world.
Significantly, it currently operates a robotaxi fleet in Shenzhen and Shanghai, two of China’s largest megacities. It hopes that the diverse data and experience gleaned from these experiences, especially in challenging urban centers in China, will give the company a valuable advantage in perfecting its technology quickly.