Baidu wants to put a driverless car on the road later this year

Chinese search company Baidu is joining the race to put autonomous cars on the road with an ambitious launch timeline.

The Beijing-based company — which is, in many ways, the Chinese equivalent of Google — wants to have a traditional car (featuring a steering wheel and pedal) with self-driving capabilities on the roads by the end of 2015, according to the BBC . Baidu is reportedly working with a pre-existing automaker on this project, but didn't specifically name the brand. Baidu has worked with BMW on autonomous car technology in the past.