BMW is teaming up with Chinese internet company Baidu to start automated driving trials in Beijing and Shanghai.

BMW research vehicles capable of highly automated driving have already been put through thousands of kilometers of trials on German autobahns, according to Reuters.

The project is being expanded to include other large cities in China, the German luxury automaker confirmed on Monday.

"BMW is embarking on a further research project which will pave the way for highly automated driving in China as well," the Munich-based company said in a statement regarding the news.

"China's fast-expanding urban centers present the engineers with challenges such as multi-level highways."

Prototype vehicles developed in this project will be operated on urban highways in Shanghai and Beijing, according to Reuters.

The automaker still needs a partner since cars with semi-autonomous driving functions still need high-resolution maps in order to help measure when they are in danger of hitting a curb, or missing a turn.

Vehicles currently don't have enough memory to store detailed maps of an entire country. This means automakers have to team up with telecoms and internet providers to help their vehicles download the most up-to-date and detailed maps.

Baidu operates China's largest search engine and is a provider of map services and cloud services, according to Reuters.

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