Beijing South Railway Station, one of the city’s major train hubs, has been given the green light to operate an autonomous taxi test service, in a move set to further bolster the commercial use of self-driving technology.

The approval, issued by Beijing High-level Autonomous Driving Demonstration Zone Work Office, marks the official opening of autonomous driving tests at a high-speed railway station in Beijing.

The demonstration zone will coordinate with relevant companies to advance the road tests of autonomous vehicles.

Companies are permitted to offer robotaxi services on two designated test routes connecting the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area with Beijing South Railway Station. These routes have round-trip distances of 32 km and 58.6 km, respectively.

The permits come with the precondition that a safety inspector will be present to take manual control in case of an emergency. It is expected that new shuttle options will be available within the year.

Beijing South Railway Station stands as a modern, comprehensive transportation hub integrating railways, subways, buses, and taxis. It accommodates a daily passenger flow of nearly 300,000 people.

The city is expanding the scope of demonstration zones for high-level autonomous driving and promoting the launch of self-driving services in five key railway hubs and two airports.

Previously, Beijing Daxing International Airport launched the robotaxi service, deploying 40 vehicles from four companies including Pony.ai and WeRide. These vehicles accumulated a total test mileage of over 220,000 km.

China’s self-driving taxi service is expected to reach 1.3 trillion yuan (about 183 billion U.S. dollars) by 2030, accounting for 60 percent of the country’s ride-hailing market at that time, according to forecasts from the global consultancy firm IHS Markit.

Speeding up high-level autonomous driving has been outlined in China’s intelligent automobile development strategy.

By late February, China had more than 20 cities that had launched policies supporting autonomous driving tests, with over 60 enterprises having obtained autonomous driving test licenses.