(Yicai Global) March 2 -- With 52 vehicles and 754,000 kilometers of new mileage, Baidu ranked first among 13 companies that qualified for self-driving vehicle tests in Beijing last year, according to a new report.

Seventy-three vehicles from 12 companies took part in the tests, which covered 886,600 kilometers, an almost seven-fold increase on 2018, with 40 cars tested with people onboard, the report by Beijing Innovation Center for Mobility Intelligent, a third-party agency, showed today.

Beijing leads the country in self-driving open test roads, area of test regions, service scale, number of test licenses issued and test mileage. Cities like Shanghai and Chongqing have also formulated autonomous driving test-related policies.

Besides Baidu, firms joining in the Beijing tests included Pony.ai, Nio, Suzhou Didi Travel Technology, Audi China Enterprise Management, BAIC BJEV, NavInfo, Daimler China, Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing China, Meituan Dianping operator Beijing Sankuai Online Technology and Tencent Holdings' wholly owned unit for transport technology in Beijing.

As of the end of 2019, 77 vehicles from 13 firms made up of six internet companies, six carmakers and one online map business had participated in the tests, totaling 1.04 million km.

Beijing, one of China's first cities to establish road test standards and rules for autonomous driving and issue testing licenses, has opened 151 roads totaling almost 504 km in four districts and counties for self-driving tests, and China's first area for self-driving tests that covers about 40 square kilometers.

Editor: Peter Thomas