In the global race for self-driving cars, a new entrant, Chinese search giant Baidu Inc., is putting the proverbial pedal to the metal. A Baidu executive tells The Wall Street Journal's Gillian Wong that the company often called the Google of China has set an ambitious goal of launching autonomous vehicles for use as shuttles in some urban areas within three years.

Baidu also said Thursday its prototype autonomous car successfully completed test drives on a 30-kilometer route from the company's headquarters in northern Beijing....