Jack Ma says Alibaba doing research on driverless cars

Ma did not elaborate on the company's plans but said the purpose was not to commercially compete with rivals Tencent and Baidu.

Despite fresh safety fears after a woman was hit and killed by a self-driving Uber vehicle in the United States last month, many tech giants like Google as well as automakers are accelerating plans in an industry attracting billions of dollars.

The competition is heating up in China, the world's largest car market, with internet firm and Alibaba rival Baidu recently predicting that self-driving vehicles will hit the road in the country within three to five years. Both Baidu and Chinese tech giant Tencent are pursuing the technology, stirring speculation about Alibaba's plans.