Photo credit: AutoX

AutoX, a San Jose-based self-driving startup, has been granted a permit to begin testing driverless cars on public roads in the state of California. The permit will allow AutoX to test its self-driving vehicles without a human safety driver behind the wheel, a permit that before now had been granted to only two companies, Waymo and Nuro. Unlike the other two, however, AutoX’s permit is limited to one vehicle and a bounded area within a designated part of the city of San Jose. AutoX’s vehicle is permitted to operate in fair weather conditions on streets and with a speed limit of no more than 45 miles-per-hour.

AutoX is a self-driving startup that’s backed by investors including Alibaba and Plug and Play. It’s raised $160 million in funding since its inception. The company, with operations in the U.S. and China, is developing self-driving technology and had previously secured a permit to test driverless vehicles but with the requirement of a safety driver. To qualify for testing without the requirement for a safety driver in the state of California, a company must verify that its vehicles are capable of operating without a driver according to standards set by regulatory agencies and AutoX has apparently proven itself worthy. Already, AutoX operates a fleet of robotaxis in the Chinese city of Shenzhen. Right now, the company seems to be ramping up its operations in the U.S.

AutoX was founded in 2016 by Jianxiong Xiao, a Ph.D. alum from MIT’s famed Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL). The company is likewise staffed by other talent from the likes of Apple, Google, Ford, Amazon, Microsoft, Stanford University, and the University of California, Berkeley.