WeRide, a Chinese autonomous vehicle firm, has been given permission to test its driverless cars in California with human occupants.

At a valuation of around $5 billion, the milestone comes as WeRide starts the process of going public on the American stock market. The timing is also in line with rumors that, out of concern for national security, the Commerce Department is thinking of outlawing Chinese-connected automobiles, even driverless ones.

WeRide has two permits from the California Public Utilities Commission as of August 2: one for driven operations and another for autonomous operations. Both enable WeRide to test its cars while transporting passengers on public roads; the later does it without a human safety driver and the former does so with one. WeRide isn’t offering the service to the general public, and the permissions prevent it from charging customers for rides.

Requests for more information, such as whether WeRide has begun carrying passengers in its driverless cars, were not answered. WeRide is allowed to test in San Jose and the surrounding areas, a CPUC spokeswoman told TechCrunch, and the business currently has 12 active vehicles on its equipment list.

Since 2021, WeRide has been conducting autonomous vehicle testing in San Jose on public highways without passengers, thanks to permissions granted by the California Department of Motor Vehicles.

The company’s California launch has been sluggish. According to DMV data, WeRide’s cars only covered 42,391 miles throughout the state independently in 2023. In contrast, Waymo logged over 9 million kilometers driven on its own.

Regarding its intentions to go into business in California, WeRide has not disclosed anything. WeRide is “limited to the use of vehicles seating fewer than 16 people, including the driver,” according to its CPUC permit. This requirement, which is absent from the licenses for Waymo, Cruise, and Zoox, may relate to the various kinds of vehicles that WeRide offers. Apart from the robotaxi, WeRide has also constructed a robobus that can accommodate ten passengers.

WeRide bills itself as the world’s first autonomous vehicle startup, with operations and testing taking place in thirty cities across seven nations. The startup is authorized to operate autonomous vehicles on public roads in China, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States. WeRide is developing a robovan for the delivery of products, a robotic street sweeper, and ADAS for OEMs in addition to its robotaxi and robobus.