Introduction

During the 2026 Spring Festival, Shenzhen achieved a remarkable milestone:

Over 500 driverless logistics vehicles served more than 800 residential communities and 300 commercial districts citywide. SF Express’s "subway + autonomous vehicle" intermodal line processed over 30,000 daily orders, while surface transport time between Futian and Bihai Bay was slashed by 50%.

This was no fleeting "tech demonstration" but the first large-scale operational stress test after Shenzhen spent a year implementing the "4123" strategic framework and establishing China’s first city-level smart delivery ecosystem.

Let’s explore this transformation with Autonomous Vehicles Are Here (WeChat ID: wurenchelaiye)!

(For further reading: "Shenzhen’s Functional Autonomous Vehicles Monthly Report (January 2026): 1,168 Vehicles, 2.42 Million Deliveries, 30+ Enterprises/Universities Co-build the ‘Shenzhen Autonomous Driving Safety Lab’")

I. Governance Evolution: Systemic-Scene Synergy Driving Shenzhen’s Logistics Innovation

Every breakthrough application relies on an invisible institutional foundation.

In March 2025, Shenzhen launched the "4123" strategic initiative, elevating functional autonomous vehicle development into a systemic urban governance project. Its impact crystallized during the 2026 Spring Festival:

1. Approvals accelerated from "monthly" to "real-time."

Longgang District pioneered a "dynamic road rights + negative list" mechanism, reducing enterprise route approval times from 7–10 business days to just 2–3 days.

This enabled courier companies to launch new routes within 48 hours when predicting Spring Festival capacity gaps—a feat impossible under traditional governance models.

2. Depots transformed from "idle assets" to "operational hubs."

China’s first "bus depot + autonomous logistics" demonstration hub activated 177 public spaces, cutting enterprise offline maintenance costs by an average of 37.5%.

Vacant bus terminals now serve as centralized charging, sorting, and dispatch centers for autonomous vehicles during nighttime hours.

3. Supervision shifted from "post-event" to "predictive."

The Shenzhen Urban Transport Planning Center’s intelligent connected vehicle platform provided 24/7 monitoring, enabling dynamic early warnings for 42 operational events via second-level data streams and completing three-tier responses ("platform alert → remote intervention → on-site handling") within 15 minutes.

This system maintained all autonomous vehicle flows during the Spring Festival within controlled, trustworthy parameters.

Shenzhen proves: Scaling autonomous delivery requires first scaling institutional support.

II. "Subway + Autonomous Vehicles": Urban Resource Reconfiguration in Action

By late January 2026, Shenzhen had 1,168 functional autonomous vehicles registered on its supervision platform, including 767 logistics vehicles.

While deploying over 500 vehicles (65% operational during the Spring Festival) represented quantitative growth, SF Express’s Futian Subway Station intermodal experiment marked qualitative transformation.

At night, when passenger traffic eased, logistics operations thrived:

Automated conveyor belts transported parcels to underground sorting zones, where 10 small autonomous vehicles acted as "platform connectors"—making 6-minute single trips and 30–40 daily cycles to deliver goods-laden trolleys precisely to subway cars.

Twenty-six minutes later, cargo transferred via dedicated freight elevators at Bihai Bay Station to SF Airlines’ transit center, connecting to overnight freight flights.

The brilliance of this "air-rail-road intermodal" model:

• Activated idle subway capacity during off-peak hours without building new infrastructure;
• Replaced 3–5 human porters with autonomous vehicles for high-frequency short-haul transfers without adding drivers;
• Maintained passenger experience through physical barriers and timed windows, ensuring zero interference between freight and passengers.

Project leaders calculated: Previously, the 50-minute car trip from Futian to the airport often extended due to traffic; now, subways arrived on schedule, maximizing aviation resource utilization and enabling next-day delivery of Lunar New Year goods.

This exemplifies the "Pareto improvement" urban planners seek—achieving multi-win outcomes through resource reconfiguration without increasing social costs.

Shenzhen explores not just road rights for autonomous vehicles but also acceptance mechanisms and symbiotic models within urban transport systems.

III. From "Hundreds" to "Thousands": Commercial Validation at Scale

Spring Festival operational data provided compelling commercial evidence for Shenzhen’s autonomous delivery industry:

1. Delivery capacity now market-priced.

In January 2026, Shenzhen’s autonomous delivery orders surpassed 2.42 million, generating ~RMB 19.92 million in commercial value.

Critically, this revenue came from genuine logistics orders by SF Express, JD.com, Meituan, Dingdong, and others—not government subsidies or marketing budgets.

2. Cost advantages emerge through scale.

Neolix’s 374 vehicles in regular Shenzhen operations achieved triple the daily delivery capacity per vehicle compared to human couriers;

Some outlets replaced dedicated drivers with autonomous vehicles for short-haul transfers, cutting overall transport costs by ~50%.

While courier companies faced "sweet burdens" of triple holiday wages, autonomous vehicles offered stable "zero-overtime" operations to offset manpower shortages.

3. Application scenarios have expanded.

From seven "pioneer" vehicles at Longgang SF Express branches to 500 citywide "main force" units, autonomous vehicles now handle diverse tasks beyond parcel transfers, including fresh food cold chain, supermarket restocking, hotel linen delivery, and pharmaceutical distribution.

(For further reading: "Neolix’s ‘Non-Stop Spring Festival’: 8.66 Million Orders Reveal Shenzhen’s Autonomous Delivery Model, Unlocking New Paradigms for Peak Holiday Deliveries")

Neolix founder Yu Enyuan revealed early 2026 plans to expand Shenzhen’s fleet to 1,000 vehicles, focusing on night deliveries and high-value scenarios—a goal emboldened by positive feedback from the Spring Festival stress test.

IV. "Trust 2026": Industrial Transformation from Efficiency-First to Safety-Anchored Development

While autonomous delivery surges forward, Shenzhen maintains rigorous risk awareness.

In January 2026, the "Shenzhen Autonomous Driving Safety Lab" officially launched.

Co-built by 30+ entities including the Shenzhen Urban Transport Planning Center, Huawei, BYD, Meituan, and Tongji University, the platform focuses on ten research areas including vehicle safety evaluation, accident investigation, and long-tail scenario simulation.

This signals Shenzhen’s industry shift from "encouraging road access and open permissions" (efficiency-first) to "strengthening safety foundations and building industry trust" (standardization-deepening).

The 70 public complaints in January (35% month-over-month growth) also warrant attention.

Feedback involving Neolix, Idriverplus, JD.com, and Meituan revealed optimization opportunities in nighttime noise, intersection efficiency, and pedestrian interactions.

Technological progress never follows a smooth curve but advances through problem identification and resolution.

Shenzhen’s decision to publicly disclose complaint data reflects its governance maturity.

V. Conclusion: Holiday Logistics as Both Task and Mirror

Shenzhen’s complete Spring Festival autonomous delivery landscape reveals two often-overlooked truths:

First, autonomous vehicles don’t replace jobs—they "liberate" work.

When couriers shift from repetitive route deliveries to high-value services like doorstep delivery and customer engagement, human-machine collaboration creates more dignified employment structures.

As one returned-home courier said: "This Spring Festival feels secure. With autonomous vehicles on duty, we can reunite with families worry-free."

Second, smart cities need not be impersonal—they can have warmth.

Tech companies’ 24/7 monitoring, regulatory teams working on New Year’s Eve, and autonomous vehicles operating steadily through cold nights—these invisible efforts materialize as "Your Lunar New Year goods have arrived" notifications on residents’ phones.

Mr. Chen in Nanshan District, who received his pre-New Year order on schedule via autonomous vehicle, commented: "Smooth service without interruptions. This city’s technology feels increasingly humane."

Whether technology has warmth depends on its presence when most needed.

In summary, Autonomous Vehicles Are Here believes:

From the "4123" strategic framework to "air-rail-road intermodal" innovations, from thousand-vehicle networks to 42 dynamic early warnings, Shenzhen is shaping a smart city vision where efficiency and humanity coexist.

Here, autonomous vehicles transcend being mere logistics tools to become "intelligent cells" of urban service; technology evolves from an efficiency engine to a carrier of humanistic care.

What do you think?