China races ahead in robovans even as autonomous delivery challenges remain

China races ahead in robovans even as autonomous delivery challenges remain

When rush hour calms down around 8 p.m. at Shenzhen’s Futian railway station, autonomous robovans get to work. They begin moving back and forth along a designated route, carrying parcels from a storage facility and dropping them off at a spot near the platform. The vehicles broadcast audio alerting people to keep a two-meter distance, but stop when passengers walk in front of them. Each van has ten cubic meters of cargo capacity and can carry up…