A California-based EV startup has partnered with one of China’s largest automakers to take on Tesla and released a teaser of their planned Tesla-fighter.

According to the UK’s AutoCar, the BAIC has become the majority stakeholder — via their Beijing Electric Vehicle Company subsidiary — of Atieva, an EV firm from Silicon Valley. German engineering conglomerate Siemens and SK Group, Korean battery manufacturer.

Though BAIC currently sells an electric five-door compact in China with an 87-mile range, by the looks of the teaser sketch Atieva is going the Tesla route. Rather than an econobox, the Atieva’s debut car is slated to be a sleek luxury sedan that has the Model S in its sights.

As the report points out, the BAIC’s comparatively paltry range is hindered by its 23.4 kWh lithium ion battery. The Atieva, however, will sport a larger battery pack and up-to-date battery technology, extending that range to a rumored 300 miles.

AutoCar also reveals that Atieva was co-founded by a former vice president at Tesla. The company started out creating code to support battery functions in plug-in hybrid applications. BAIC, on the other hand, is owned by the Chinese government and boasts an 8 percent market share in its home country. It has also formed joint ventures with Hyundai and Daimler-Benz.

The first Atieva model is scheduled to debut at the 2016 Beijing Motor Show.

Mercedes-Benz continues its co-branding deal with Nintendo by placing the GLA compact crossover front and center in a new Super Mario game.

In the recently-released Super Mario Maker the turtle-stomping plumber-turned-hero is back in a traditional side-scrolling adventure. Released for the franchise’s 30th anniversary, the twist is that the players get to create their own levels and upload them for others to play and comment on.

This week Mercedes uploaded its own playable level in the style of the original 8-bit Nintendo Super Mario Bros game. It even includes a mushroom “power up” that puts Mario behind the wheel of pixel-drawn GLA. In case there is any confusion, since the result looks kind of like a generic silver SUV, the designers make sure you can’t miss the words “Mercedes” and “GLA” written in blocks throughout the level.

The automaker made waves in August when it featured three models in Mario Kart 8. It was the first time Nintendo had ever included a real-world model in the fantasy racing game’s 23 years of publication. Those models included a 1934 Silver Arrow race car, a 1957 300SL Gullwing, and, well, the GLA.

Super Mario Maker is available on the Nintendo Wii U gaming system.

Chinese web giant Baidu has started testing a fully autonomous prototype on the streets of Beijing.

While rival Google built a self-driving car from the ground up, Baidu chose to buy a BMW 3 Series GT and fit it with all of the cameras, sensors, and lasers required for autonomous operation. The system is capable of detecting other motorists, obstacles in the road, and pedestrians. During the initial 18-mile test, the GT reached a top speed of 62 mph, and it performed U-turns, left and right turns, lane changes, and merging maneuvers on public roads.

Baidu’s self-driving 3 Series GT relies on highly automated driving (HAD) maps that record accurate 3D road data in real time and are capable of detecting precisely where the vehicle is situated. The technology is still in its infancy, but Baidu predicts a vast majority of China’s roads could be mapped with HAD mapping within five to 10 years, paving the way for the widespread adoption of autonomous passenger cars and city buses.

Baidu explains developing a self-driving car is more difficult in China than elsewhere in the world.

“Fully autonomous driving under mixed road conditions is universally challenging, with complexity further heightened by Beijing’s road conditions and unpredictable driver behavior,” said Wang Jing, the senior vice president of Baidu and the general manager of the firm’s newly-established Autonomous Driving Business Unit, in a statement.

The company hopes to bring a self-driving car to the market in the not-too-distant future, but a more specific time frame hasn’t been given yet.

Jaguar has revealed it’s not interested in launching a semi-autonomous car because it believes the technology isn’t ready for prime time yet.

Stephen Boulter, the project manager of the XF line, told Mashable he believes semi-autonomous technology is dangerous because it has a tendency to give motorists a “false sense of security.” Consequently, Jaguar’s automatic braking feature slows the new 2016 XF (pictured) down if it detects that a collision is imminent, but it’s not programmed to bring the car to a complete stop. Boulter has ruled out automatic steering — a feature offered on a vast majority of the XF’s competitors — for the same reason.

“We have the same hardware as Tesla. To do Autopilot, all you need is electric power steering — you don’t need an EV.” conceded the executive. “If something happens [with Autopilot], it could set the technology back a decade,” he warned.

Instead, Jaguar is focusing on bringing a fully autonomous car to the market in a safe and timely manner. Boulter announced that the British car maker will soon begin testing autonomous cars on the roads around its headquarters in Gaydon, England, though he stopped short of disclosing when the model will be ready to hit showrooms.