Recently, Xi’an Postal Branch in Shaanxi province started piloting the first batch of intelligent unmanned delivery vehicles at Kejilu collection and delivery office in Gaoxin district and Shanglinyuan delivery center.

The intelligent unmanned delivery vehicle is about 3.6 meters long, 1.5 meters wide and 2.1 meters high, with a top speed of 40 kilometers per hour and a range of 180 kilometers on a full charge. With a loading space of five cubic meters, it can carry up to 1,000 kilograms of mail items at a time. The vehicle, featuring unmanned driving, can identify delivery routes by itself, yield to pedestrians, recognize traffic lights, and flexibly respond to various road conditions. The two intelligent unmanned delivery vehicles in operation have the function of transit, allowing numerous routes to be set in the background, which enables multi-location transshipment and sequential deliveries. Moreover, the unmanned vehicles are equipped with L4 autonomous driving system, boasting powerful perceptual fusion and high-precision positioning functionality. This enables them to adeptly navigate various road conditions, and ensures all-weather, all-terrain and fully automated safe operation, so as to keep the mail items intact while fulfilling delivery tasks.

It is understood that the unmanned vehicles will be mainly used in multiple operational scenarios, such as direct delivery to self-pickup points, deployment at buildings and evening shift delivery. Staff members can scan the code with a mobile app to open the compartment and complete parking. The streamlined operation process can effectively increase the frequency of delivery in urban areas, improve delivery efficiency, and eventually facilitate postal enterprises to achieve cost reduction and efficiency increase in terms of the utilization of personnel and vehicle resources in the mail transfer process. This initiative is an important attempt and exploration that postal enterprises have made to transform the labor-intensive production operation into that of intelligence, flexible manpower and automation.

Currently, Xi’an Postal Branch is monitoring the operation status of the intelligent unmanned delivery vehicles, with plans to expand their applications to more routes in the future.