ITPO Shanghai partners with White Rhino Auto company Robot delivery vehicles deployed to help with COVID-19

Unmanned vehicles or carts that can carry food or other items are nothing new, not in China at any rate. The JD.com e-commerce company began road-testing the country’s first domestically developed self-driving delivery vehicle in September 2016, and a number of other companies quickly joined in a race to seize the market. 

With the outbreak of the coronavirus in Wuhan in Hubei province in December 2019, a new role for the unmanned delivery vehicle soon emerged. Thanks to a partnership between UNIDO’s Investment and Technology Promotion Office (ITPO) in Shanghai, and the Beijing-based White Rhino Auto company, unmanned vehicles were set to work at Wuhan’s Guanggu Field Hospital. Two White Rhino vehicles were brought to Wuhan from Beijing by the company CEO and two engineers who set them up to transport medical supplies, deliver meals for doctors and patients, and complete other emergency tasks in the hospital. The use of the unmanned vehicles not only helped avoid cross-infection but also reduced the workload of the hard-pressed medical staff.

For more information on the mandate and work of ITPO Shanghai, please refer to the  Annual Report 2019. 

Contact:Mr. Weixi Gong (W.Gong [at] unido.org) or Ms. Xiaolei Zhao (X.Zhao [at] unido.org)