Chinese tech giant Baidu Inc. has won Hong Kong’s first license to test autonomous vehicles in the city as the company seeks to expand its driverless technology beyond mainland China. 

Baidu’s Apollo International unit will be allowed to conduct a trial of 10 autonomous vehicles in the North Lantau area, according to Hong Kong’s Transport Department. Autonomous driving and machine learning have been core tenets in Baidu’s broader ambitions to expand within the artificial intelligence sector. Its autonomous ride-hailing arm “Apollo Go” launched a cheap robotaxi model in May and aims to be profitable by next year. 

Baidu in April 2024 reached an agreement with Tesla Inc. to embed its maps into the automaker’s self-driving systems in China.

“Apollo Go looks forward to bringing the benefit of AI and autonomous driving technology to more countries and regions,” a spokesperson for Apollo Go said.