Baidu's CEO wants China's help for a local SpaceX

China needs to put new regulations and financial subsidies in place to quicken the development of autonomous cars or risk getting left behind, the billionaire co-founder of the nation’s largest search engine said.

Baidu Chief Executive Officer Robin Li, whose company is competing with Uber Technologies and Alphabet’s Waymo to commercialise self-driving technology, wants Beijing to take the lead in getting Chinese enterprises to collaborate on research and craft a regulatory framework. His proposal was included among a raft of others he will put forth at an annual meeting of regulators this week, in a wish-list that includes a dream of seeing a Chinese private space-exploration leader — a la Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Home to the world’s biggest auto market, China has set a goal for 10 per cent to 20 per cent of vehicles to be highly autonomous by 2025, and for 10 per cent of cars to be fully self-driving in 2030. But Li, whose Baidu is also driving research into artificial intelligence, thinks Beijing needs to do more in the race to develop a transformative new technology.

“Major developing countries are employing a host of measures to support research into, and testing of, autonomous driving,” Li said in a document outlining his suggestions. “But the majority of our country’s laws and policies simply aren’t suitable for the development of self-driving cars.”

Baidu formed a self-driving car team in Silicon Valley in 2016 that would go on to employ more than 100 researchers and engineers, and is now headed by President Qi Lu. It’s partnered with chipmaker Nvidia, tested its autonomous vehicles in eastern Chinese cities, and earned a permit from California for a trial in the state last year. The internet giant plans to have self-driving cars ply China’s roads by 2018, ahead of mass production by 2021.