The test vehicles use technology from Daimler's partner Baidu Apollo, and they had to go through rigorous closed-course testing in Beijing and Hebei before Chinese authorities granted the license. The cars will still have human drivers behind the wheel ready to take over if anything goes wrong. Daimler says Beijing has "unique and complex urban traffic situations" and testing there should help it to improve its self-driving technology.

Daimler already has licenses to test automated vehicles in the US and Germany. China, meanwhile, opened public roads to self-driving car trials at the end of last year. Until now, authorities had only allowed a few Chinese companies (including SAIC, Nio and Baidu) to test autonomous vehicles in Shanghai and Beijing.