Faraday Future plans to begin testing prototype self-driving electric vehicles on California roads later this year after winning approval from the state.
The Los Angeles-based startup plans to begin building and selling electric vehicles next year in the United States. A spokesperson from the California Department of Motor Vehicles on Tuesday confirmed that Faraday had been approved to test self-driving vehicles on public roads on June 17.
Faraday has been testing prototype vehicles for the past year at private facilities. Jan Becker, senior director of automated driving at Faraday's San Jose tech center, said in an early June interview with Reuters that the company's electric vehicles would have "state of the art driver assistance systems." Such systems provide the foundation for full self-driving capability.
California previously approved 13 companies to test autonomous vehicles on public roads, most recently two Silicon Valley startups, Zoox and Drive.ai, funded by venture investors. The state's Department of Motor Vehicles also has approved testing by Cruise Automation, which was acquired earlier this year by General Motors.
Other approved testers include Alphabet Inc.'s Google, Tesla, Volkswagen AG, Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz, Nissan Motor Co., BMW AG, Honda Motor Co. and Ford Motor Co., and auto suppliers Robert Bosch and Delphi Automotive.
