HONG KONG/ PALO ALTO, U.S. -- When AutoX said in December that it had become the first Chinese company to test fully self-driving vehicles on open roads in the country, the result took a back seat to the fact that the test took place at all.
The boast of 4-year-old Auto X about its test in Shenzhen -- no other Chinese company has removed the backup driver and remote controller during road tests -- shows how quickly the regulatory ground on autonomous driving is changing as Beijing does its best to put its foot to the floor on development of a key technology.
