Responding to a local flare up in COVID-19 cases, JD Logistics has deployed a small fleet of autonomous delivery vehicles to Guangzhou to provide contactless delivery to residents in quarantine.

According to JD Logistics this is the third time it has deployed such vehicles to support the fight against the virus. It has done this in Wuhan and Shijiazhuang.

“The first robots will be sent to 14 residential compounds in Guanggang (GZ Steel) New Town in Liwan District, ensuring the last-mile delivery for daily necessities,” said Qi Kong, chief scientist and head of autonomous driving at JD Logistics. “Now we are planning for the transportation routes and technology testing.”

The Chinese government gave test licenses to three logistics companies to deploy autonomous delivery robots last month, with JD Logistics amongst them.