diff --git a/packages/@angular/cli/blueprints/ng2/files/angular-cli.json b/packages/@angular/cli/blueprints/ng2/files/angular-cli.json
index 8a57d08bac51..5cf039859ee6 100644
--- a/packages/@angular/cli/blueprints/ng2/files/angular-cli.json
+++ b/packages/@angular/cli/blueprints/ng2/files/angular-cli.json
@@ -46,7 +46,11 @@
   "test": {
     "karma": {
       "config": "./karma.conf.js"
-    }
+    },
+    "include": [
+      "**/*.spec.ts",
+      "test.ts"
+    ]
   },
   "defaults": {
     "styleExt": "<%= styleExt %>",
diff --git a/packages/@angular/cli/lib/config/schema.json b/packages/@angular/cli/lib/config/schema.json
index c3c3ad42cef6..1f529b1f52e4 100644
--- a/packages/@angular/cli/lib/config/schema.json
+++ b/packages/@angular/cli/lib/config/schema.json
@@ -262,6 +262,17 @@
             }
           },
           "additionalProperties": false
+        },
+        "include":{
+          "description": "Test files to include in the TypeScript compilation.",
+          "type": "array",
+          "items": {
+            "type": "string"
+          },
+          "default": [
+            "**/*.spec.ts",
+            "test.ts"
+          ]
         }
       },
       "additionalProperties": false
diff --git a/packages/@angular/cli/models/webpack-configs/typescript.ts b/packages/@angular/cli/models/webpack-configs/typescript.ts
index b3fac77f34ca..e76c5bffeb9d 100644
--- a/packages/@angular/cli/models/webpack-configs/typescript.ts
+++ b/packages/@angular/cli/models/webpack-configs/typescript.ts
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ import * as fs from 'fs';
 import * as path from 'path';
 import { stripIndent } from 'common-tags';
 import {AotPlugin, AotPluginOptions} from '@ngtools/webpack';
+
+import { CliConfig } from '../config';
 import { WebpackConfigOptions } from '../webpack-config';
 
 const SilentError = require('silent-error');
@@ -13,9 +15,16 @@ const webpackLoader: string = g['angularCliIsLocal']
   : '@ngtools/webpack';
 
 
-function _createAotPlugin(wco: WebpackConfigOptions, options: any) {
+function _createAotPlugin(wco: WebpackConfigOptions, options: any = {}) {
   const { appConfig, projectRoot, buildOptions } = wco;
 
+  // Exclude test files by default.
+  const testConfig = CliConfig.fromProject().config.test;
+  options.exclude = (testConfig && testConfig.include) || [
+    '**/*.spec.ts',
+    'test.ts'
+  ];
+
   // Read the environment, and set it in the compiler host.
   let hostReplacementPaths: any = {};
   // process environment file replacement
@@ -76,12 +85,6 @@ function _createAotPlugin(wco: WebpackConfigOptions, options: any) {
 
 
 export const getNonAotConfig = function(wco: WebpackConfigOptions) {
-  const { projectRoot, appConfig } = wco;
-  let exclude = [ '**/*.spec.ts' ];
-  if (appConfig.test) {
-    exclude.push(path.join(projectRoot, appConfig.root, appConfig.test));
-  }
-
   return {
     module: {
       rules: [
@@ -93,15 +96,12 @@ export const getNonAotConfig = function(wco: WebpackConfigOptions) {
       ]
     },
     plugins: [
-      _createAotPlugin(wco, { exclude, skipCodeGeneration: true }),
+      _createAotPlugin(wco, { skipCodeGeneration: true }),
     ]
   };
 };
 
 export const getAotConfig = function(wco: WebpackConfigOptions) {
-  const { projectRoot, appConfig } = wco;
-  let exclude = [ '**/*.spec.ts' ];
-  if (appConfig.test) { exclude.push(path.join(projectRoot, appConfig.root, appConfig.test)); };
   return {
     module: {
       rules: [
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ export const getAotConfig = function(wco: WebpackConfigOptions) {
       ]
     },
     plugins: [
-      _createAotPlugin(wco, { exclude })
+      _createAotPlugin(wco)
     ]
   };
 };
diff --git a/packages/@ngtools/webpack/src/plugin.ts b/packages/@ngtools/webpack/src/plugin.ts
index c6e824fcb08b..2e5ff05eeeb4 100644
--- a/packages/@ngtools/webpack/src/plugin.ts
+++ b/packages/@ngtools/webpack/src/plugin.ts
@@ -113,35 +113,28 @@ export class AotPlugin implements Tapable {
     } catch (err) {
       throw new Error(`An error happened while parsing ${this._tsConfigPath} JSON: ${err}.`);
     }
+
+    // Default excludes to **/*.spec.ts files.
+    if (!options.hasOwnProperty('exclude')) {
+      options['exclude'] = ['**/*.spec.ts'];
+    }
+
+    // If the tsconfig doesn't contain any excludes, we must add the default ones before adding
+    // any extra ones (otherwise we'd include all of these which can cause unexpected errors).
+    // This is the same logic as present in TypeScript.
+    if (!tsConfigJson.exclude) {
+      tsConfigJson['exclude'] = ['node_modules', 'bower_components', 'jspm_packages'];
+      if (tsConfigJson.compilerOptions && tsConfigJson.compilerOptions.outDir) {
+        tsConfigJson.exclude.push(tsConfigJson.compilerOptions.outDir);
+      }
+    }
+
+    // Join our custom excludes with the existing ones.
+    tsConfigJson.exclude = tsConfigJson.exclude.concat(options.exclude);
+
     const tsConfig = ts.parseJsonConfigFileContent(
       tsConfigJson, ts.sys, basePath, null, this._tsConfigPath);
-
     let fileNames = tsConfig.fileNames;
-    if (options.hasOwnProperty('exclude')) {
-      let exclude: string[] = typeof options.exclude == 'string'
-          ? [options.exclude as string] : (options.exclude as string[]);
-
-      exclude.forEach((pattern: string) => {
-        const basePathPattern = '(' + basePath.replace(/\\/g, '/')
-            .replace(/[\-\[\]\/{}()+?.\\^$|*]/g, '\\$&') + ')?';
-        pattern = pattern
-          // Replace windows path separators with forward slashes.
-          .replace(/\\/g, '/')
-          // Escape characters that are used normally in regexes, except stars.
-          .replace(/[\-\[\]{}()+?.\\^$|]/g, '\\$&')
-          // Two stars replacement.
-          .replace(/\*\*/g, '(?:.*)')
-          // One star replacement.
-          .replace(/\*/g, '(?:[^/]*)')
-          // Escape characters from the basePath and make sure it's forward slashes.
-          .replace(/^/, basePathPattern);
-
-        const re = new RegExp('^' + pattern + '$');
-        fileNames = fileNames.filter(x => !x.replace(/\\/g, '/').match(re));
-      });
-    } else {
-      fileNames = fileNames.filter(fileName => !/\.spec\.ts$/.test(fileName));
-    }
     this._rootFilePath = fileNames;
 
     // Check the genDir. We generate a default gendir that's under basepath; it will generate
diff --git a/tests/e2e/tests/build/aot/exclude.ts b/tests/e2e/tests/build/aot/exclude.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..69f16483fcba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/e2e/tests/build/aot/exclude.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+import { ng } from '../../../utils/process';
+import { writeFile } from '../../../utils/fs';
+import { updateJsonFile } from '../../../utils/project';
+
+export default function () {
+  // Check if **/*.spec.ts files are excluded by default.
+  return Promise.resolve()
+    .then(() => updateJsonFile('.angular-cli.json', configJson => {
+      const test = configJson['test'];
+      delete test['include'];
+    }))
+    // This import would cause aot to fail.
+    .then(() => writeFile('src/app.component.spec.ts', `
+      import { BrowserDynamicTestingModule } from '@angular/platform-browser-dynamic/testing';
+    `))
+    .then(() => ng('build', '--aot'));
+}