In Shenzhen, China, delivery robots have learned to use the subway themselves. They carry goods for 7-Eleven stores located in metro stations.
Robots independently plot their routes, use elevators, get into cars and get off at the right stops. The tests began in July 2025. According to the developers' calculations, only 41 such robots are able to deliver goods to more than a hundred 7-Eleven stores in the Shenzhen metro.
However, robotic delivery has been developing in China for quite some time. For example, Mitoan started working in this field back in 2016, and in 2018 it introduced its own autonomous delivery platform. By the end of 2025, its unmanned ground delivery drivers have completed more than 5.5 million orders and traveled more than 19 million kilometers.
Another example is the Chinese Neolix, which develops unmanned vehicles for urban logistics. By the end of 2025, the company has supplied more than 13 thousand of these machines, and the geography of their operation has exceeded 300 cities.
Russia also has serious achievements in this field. Yandex has been developing delivery robots since 2019. At the end of the third quarter of 2026, the company's fleet exceeded 1,500 robots operating in 13 cities. In total, they completed more than 2 million deliveries, and over 750 thousand in the third quarter alone. By the end of 2027, the company plans to release 20 thousand new delivery robots.
Thus, we have the necessary technologies, and the local developments are quite competitive. However, the Chinese are actively introducing much more autonomous delivery into a variety of logistics processes, gradually reducing reliance on manual labor. China's own attitude is particularly telling here. In a country of more than 1.4 billion people, where there is clearly no shortage of potential couriers, businesses are investing heavily in the automation of deliveries.