Beijing Metropolitan authority has granted JD.com, Meituan, and Neolix to test their autonomous vehicle delivery system on some designated public roads within the Beijing suburbs. Specifically, the driverless delivery vans will run a pilot scheme within the Yizhuang Development Area. The announcement was made on Tuesday by the local authorities.

According to reports, the requisite 5G infrastructure needed for the rollout of driverless delivery service in the Yizhuang neighborhood is already in place. The three companies granted the permit have differing goals. While JD.com and Meituan seek these self-driving delivery vans to meet up demand from its core business concerns, Neolix is a young startup focused on retail, surveillance, and other city services. Neolix is backed by Li Auto, a budding electric vehicle manufacturer.

The new driverless delivery scheme is bound to impact positively on the operations of JD.com, as it may scale down the number of delivery staff needed for its activities in the target area. Meituan draws from a pool of riders to carry out restaurant deliveries, enhanced with the new driverless delivery system.

About 150 self-driving delivery vans would be deployed by Neolix by June, according to the company. It is still unclear the scale of deployment of the delivery robots by JD.com and Meituan, as both companies were yet to provide public information on their plans.

There are strict safety rules that must be met by each of the companies, including on-the-spot or remote safety drivers, to react to the fluid dynamics of these robots interfacing with pedestrians. Each company has developed the self-driving technology to an appreciable level for its deployment and hopes this pilot run will be highly successful. Each of the delivery vans is customized to interact with customers excellently.

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Self-driving or autonomous vehicles have prevailed for a while now. But their usage has only come into the light now during the COVID-19 pandemic. Neolix, a Chinese self-driving delivery company has been transporting medical supplies and food in its autonomous vans to the most affected areas like the epicenter in Wuhan. Seeing its potential, the Chinese government has announced to subsidize up to 60% of the total cost of the vehicle’s price to the companies willing to purchase them.

Neolix started manufacturing its self-driving vans only in May 2019. Since then, the company has only produced 125 units. But now, due to the vehicle’s potential amidst the coronavirus outbreak, the company has received over 200 orders for its vans. Further, after the Chinese government’s announcement of subsidizing the cost of the self-driving vans to any firm purchasing them for the greater good, the company now expects to manufacture and sell more than 1,000 units of them by the end of this year.

Autonomous vehicles have always been thought to be dangerous on roads with normal vehicles and pedestrians. However, as most of the regions in the world are now facing forced shutdowns, the roads are mostly less congested and thus advanced self-driving vehicles can be used in a large manner without hesitation to transport necessities to affected areas.

(Source)

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