A Chinese firm that makes driverless delivery vans is thriving amid the coronavirus outbreak

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Volunteers and community workers preparing fresh vegetables for people in Wuhan, China, on February 25.

• A Chinese startup that makes driverless delivery vans says it has seen demand skyrocket amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
• Neolix's founder, Yu Enyuan, told Bloomberg that the firm had taken orders for more than 200 vehicles in the past two months - before that, it had made only 125 units since it began manufacturing last May.
• Enyuan said local Chinese authorities were offering incentives to fund the purchase and operation of driverless delivery vans in their jurisdictions.
• He said the firm's customers included the Chinese e-commerce giants JD.com and Alibaba, both of which have reportedly invested billions in driverless-delivery technologies.
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A Chinese startup that makes driverless delivery vans says it has seen demand skyrocket amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

The vans made by the Beijing-based Neolix have helped deliver medical supplies in coronavirus-hit areas of China and have been used to disinfect streets and transport food to people working on the frontlines to stop the virus from spreading.

That's according to Neolix's founder, Yu Enyuan, who told Bloomberg that the firm had taken orders for more than 200 vehicles in the past two months, while before that it had produced only 125 units since it began manufacturing last May.

Enyuan also said local authorities in China were offering incentives to fund the purchase and operation of driverless delivery vans in their jurisdictions, as human delivery drivers have become wary of the risks posed by the virus.

"Demand has been surging since the virus outbreak and more importantly, people's perception toward driverless delivery had a complete 180-degree shift," he told Bloomberg. "People realize that such vehicles can get things done when it is risky for a human being to do so."

He also said the company's customers included the e-commerce giants JD.Com, Meiutan, and Alibaba, whose founder, Jack Ma, has forecast the widespread use of driverless delivery technology.

As Bloomberg noted, in 2017, Ma - who is China's richest person - predicted there'd be 1 billion deliveries a day in China within a decade, driven by the proliferation of technology like Neolix's.

Both JD.Com and Alibaba have reportedly invested billions in driverless delivery technology like self-driving carts and drones, and have also started to develop their own self-driving-vehicle technologies.

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