STORY: Driverless cars are already on Chinese roads.

This robotaxi is plying the streets of the central city of Wuhan, which has moved fast to adopt the technology.

Now Beijing wants to catch up.

On Tuesday, the capital unveiled new rules meant to encourage autonomous driving there.

State media say vehicles that pass road tests and safety assessments will be allowed to apply for trials in the city.

The regulations take effect from April 1.

And the eventual goal is to get driverless buses and taxis roaming the streets.

There will also be moves to develop intelligent road infrastructure to support such transport.

Chinese authorities have been aggressively green lighting trials of self-driving tech around the country.

At least 19 cities are now conducting trials of robotaxis and robobuses.

On Monday, Wuhan said it had adopted new rules meant to promote the development of intelligent connected transport.

Big players in the field include Apollo Go, a subsidiary of tech giant Baidu.

It had set a goal of deploying 1,000 robotaxis in Wuhan by the end of 2024.

Rival Pony.ai aims to roughly quadruple its driverless cab fleet by 2026.

Meanwhile, Tesla hopes to bring its so-called Full Self Driving tech to China in early 2025, and has said it will start making its own robotaxi the following year.