From CNET: After last year's Uber acquisition and Apple's $1 billion investment, Didi Chuxing has journeyed to the mecca of tech, Silicon Valley.
The Chinese ride hailer officially opened its first US-based research and development lab in Mountain View, California this week, according to a statement released Wednesday.
Helmed by Fengmin Gong, Didi Labs will scour for engineering talents and focus on developing "AI-based security and intelligent driving technologies." Charlie Miller, an automobile security expert perhaps best known for remotely hacking and controlling a journalist's car, is also on board as part of the team.
It comes not long after Didi Chuxing last month began testing an English version of its app over in China. That, along with previous comments by Didi Chuxing President Jean Liu, have raised suspicions that the company may soon take its services abroad.
Ride hailers have been battling to be the first to roll out self-driving cars -- and the fight is real. Last month, Google-bred company Waymo took Uber to court, alleging that the latter stole its self-driving technologies.
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