Autonomous vehicles find fixed route delivery role At a YTO Express outlet in Foshan, Guangdong province, courier Wang Kangkang finishes loading bags of parcels into a driverless van about the size of a golf cart, closes the cargo door and taps "depart" on his phone. The vehicle, supplied by autonomous-driving company Neolix, pulls away on its own, joining regular traffic on a 3-kilometer run to a neighborhood parcel station. The route takes about 20 minutes, passing traffic lights, a speed bump and a narrow lane. "This route is fixed. Once it's set, I don't have to watch it all the way," Wang said. "It's much easier than making the trip myself on a three-wheeler." Such short, repetitive runs are emerging as one of the more practical uses for autonomous vehicles in China's vast parcel network. Before the van was introduced, couriers at the outlet ferried parcels between the two sites on electric three-wheelers. Moving about 1,000 parcels could require at least two trips, according to outlet manager Ouyang Chaoyang. The outlet estimates that its short-distance transfer costs have fallen by about 30 percent since it began using the vehicle last year, while the time couriers spend shuttling back and forth has been cut by about 40 percent. "The time saved can be used for collecting parcels and making door-to-door deliveries," Ouyang said. "Those are the parts of the job where couriers can create more value." The Foshan operation is part of a wider rollout. By the end of 2024, more than 6,000 autonomous delivery vehicles had been put into large-scale use across more than 100 types of applications nationwide, according to the State Post Bureau of China. At one parcel station in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, more than 20 driverless vehicles handle over 30 percent of deliveries, with each carrying at