China halts highway testing of autonomous cars, report says

Chinese officials have told carmakers to cease testing autonomous cars on the country's highways until legislation is in place. The head of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, She Weizhen, said the ministry and police have a preliminary draft of the guidelines, according to Automotive News. However, Weizhen did not divulge a timeline for the implementation of final rules. SEE ALSO: Mercedes' autonomous Future Bus just drove through Amsterdam The move is an intriguing one, because -- until this announcement -- Chinese officials were keen to champion autonomous driving technology and its implementation. Though it's not been specifically articulated, it's not hard to presume the recent crashes, one of which resulted in a fatality, involving Tesla's beta-tested semi-autonomous driving system, Autopilot, could have spurred the move for the moratorium on autonomous car testing.