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 p.m. 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.