China’s delivery robots are learning to tackle the night shift – CNBC TV18

By day, Shenzhen flaunts its role as the high-tech factory for the world.

Self-driving taxis collect passengers from the roadside, drones carry parcels, and delivery robots jostle with passengers in hotel elevators. By night, the city’s factories keep running. The high-rise offices stay lit, the traffic thins out but still flows, and crowds are drawn to streetside food stalls.

Just after 10 pm at a farmers’ market in Longgang district, an hour’s drive from downtown, grocery store manager Zhang Chao stands amid the bustle of produce stalls, pulls out his phone and summons a robot. What arrives a few moments later is a boxy vehicle with bank of sensors behind the glass where a driver would normally sit. Once loaded with a package of poultry, the robovan — operated by the autonomous vehicle startup Neolix Technologies Co. — sets off at a 45-kilometer-an-hour clip, heading for one of Zhang’s customers across town.

In March, Shenzhen opened access for nighttime deliveries by driverless vehicles, giving over its streets to an experiment that could unlock a new wave of growth for China’s autonomous transport and robotics industries. Navigating in the dark is difficult, as robots need to maneuver in low-light, with unpredictable…

Original source: https://www.cnbctv18.com/technology/