(Yicai Global) Aug. 6 -- Chinese tech giant Baidu and state-owned FAW Group's luxury auto marque Hongqi plan to conduct open road tests of the country's first level-four autonomous vehicles by the end of this year.

The pair will trial the vehicles in Hunan's provincial capital Changsha, Hunan Daily reported. The car, based on FAW Hongqi's first pure-electric sports-utility vehicle***, features Baidu's Apollo self-driving technology and has already arrived at the local networked vehicle base for closed road tests.

The facility is currently building an open urban road and smart highway, each spanning 100 kilometers, to allow Baidu and Hongqi's new cars to undergo testing, said a source at Hunan Xiangjiang Intelligent Technology, which is building the new test tracks. 

If they pass the test, the cars will then be commercialized as taxis by a company backed by Baidu, Xiangjiang and several other companies.

Editor: James Boynton