Beijing approves first two L3 autonomous cars in leap towards ‘hands-off’ driving

Beijing has approved China’s first two cars with level 3 (L3) autonomous driving capability, taking a leap towards widely deploying self-driving technology in the world’s largest automotive market. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) announced on Monday that Changan Automobile and BAIC were given the go-ahead to build electric vehicles (EVs) that would allow drivers to be hands off in some circumstances. But the cars, both pure EVs, could only navigate urban streets and...