Baidu staked a claim to be the only company offering autonomous taxi services in mulitple Chinese cities after adding Beijing to two exisiting operations.

The company stated its Apollo Go Robotaxi test service uses vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology, but requires a human driver to be on-board to take control if necessary. Customers can book journeys online.

Baidu received a green light from the government to commence public service after eight months of small-scale manned testing in Beijing in which it completed road tests totalling 519,000km.

The Beijing service covers around 700km of roads and offers nearly 100 pick-up and drop-off points in three districts. It aims to operate 40 vehicles.

It launched Apollo Go in parts of Cangzhou, Hebei province, last week, and Changsha, Hunan province, in April.

The company previously said its test fleet had logged more than 2 million kms across 13 cities by June, and that it received almost half of the 204 autonomous driving pilot licences awarded in China.