Tell-tale white and blue self-driving cars belonging to Baidu, China’s largest search engine, have been spotted¹ on public roads in northern Beijing, in what appear to be the first public road tests of fully autonomous² cars in China.

中国最大搜索引擎百度(Baidu)旗下的蓝白色自主驾驶汽车已被发现出现在北京北部的公共道路上，似乎在进行中国首次全自主驾驶汽车公路测试。

China’s government has announced it will develop national regulations for testing on public roads in China, which a Baidu executive said could be ready by the end of the year. But already the company appears to be testing fully autonomous cars in what is a legal grey area — the cars have drivers in them but they appear not to be driving. A Baidu representative declined to comment.

中国政府已宣布将制定自主驾驶汽车国内路测的国家规范；一名百度高管表示，该规范可能在今年底前出台。但该公司似乎已在法律灰色地带——车内坐有司机，但他们似乎不在驾驶——测试全自主驾驶汽车。百度的一名代表拒绝置评。

A senior executive at Baidu confirmed it was working with local governments to start legally testing autonomously-driven cars on some public roads in China by February 2018, which would be a milestone³ for the industry.

百度一名高管证实，该公司正与地方政府合作，从2018年2月起合法地在国内公共道路上对自主驾驶汽车进行测试，这将成为该行业的一个里程碑。

People in the industry say the permissiveness of regulations will set the pace of this technology.

业内人士表示，国家规范的宽容程度将决定这项技术的发展速度。

“I think [it] will not be technology that will set that pace, it will be regulations and liability rules,” said Martin Lundstedt, chief executive of Volvo Group, which last week unveiled a self-driving truck prototype in Beijing.

“我认为，决定发展速度的不是技术，而是规范和赔偿责任规则，”沃尔沃集团(Volvo Group)首席执行官马丁?伦德斯泰特(Martin Lundstedt)表示。沃尔沃上周在北京发布了一款自主驾驶卡车的样车。

Currently at least five Chinese or Chinese-invested companies, including Baidu, have licences to test driverless cars on public roads in Silicon⁴ Valley, given out by the California Department of Motor Vehicles as part of an experimental programme.

目前，至少5家中国或中资入股的公司（包括百度）获得了加州机动车辆管理局(DMV)颁发的在硅谷进行无人驾驶汽车路测的牌照，作为一个试验项目的一部分。