In response to the ongoing lockdown in Shanghai, Chinese logistics giant JD Logistics is using delivery robots for contactless delivery.

The JD Logistics robots have a payload capacity of up to 100kg and a range of 80km. Being fully autonomous they use AI and a range of sensors to spot and avoid obstacles on their journeys, as well as planning their routes to the destination.

The pandemic has given such technology a kick – JD Logistics has been using it in large scale since the first lockdowns of 2020 in several cities around China. In Wuhan where the global pandemic started, the delivery robots delivered more than 13,000 parcels and travelled more than 6,800km during the peak of the crisis. One – ‘Big White’ – is now an exhibit in the National Museum of China in Beijing.

JD Logistics unveiled its delivery robots in 2016 and the first Level 4 autonomous vehicles stared operation in 2019. This is the first such vehicle to operate commercially in the world with no human interaction. Currently 400 of the vehicles are in operation in 25 cities in China.