Is China ahead of the United States in development of self driving cars?

Everybody wants autonomous vehicles now: It’s the auto industry’s way forward and Silicon Valley’s latest preoccupation. China is no different.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is testing self-driving cars in China, and Baidu Inc. started trials of autonomous technology last year. BMW AG earlier this month was the first foreign carmaker to get a license to test its offering in China. In mid-May, Shenzhen-based Roadstar.Ai LLC raised a record amount from Chinese investors.

Meanwhile, Tencent Holdings Ltd. and bigger-than-Uber ride-hailing provider Didi Chuxing said in the last couple of weeks they’re testing autonomous cars in California. They join a host of niche Chinese tech companies that now account for about one-fifth of those with permits for self-driving trials in the U.S., alongside carmakers and startups.

A lot of this follows a Beijing-mandated push. In April, the government laid out national road-testing guidelines for autonomous vehicles, adding to rules in place in Shanghai and Beijing. That will make it possible for China to collect vast amounts of data on AV testing on public roads, the way Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent, did with its sibling Waymo. If automakers see a future in China, the world’s largest car market, they’ll need to have data collected and created in China. Californian data won’t fly.