Qinghai police buy driverless patrol vehicles built on delivery van chassis

Police in Guide County (贵德县), in China's northwestern Qinghai province, are paying 525,000 yuan (about US$78,000) for two driverless patrol vehicles that photograph illegally parked cars. Their maker, a Shenzhen police-equipment company, says they ride on a driverless delivery-van chassis, putting parcel hardware to work on traffic enforcement.

The county's Public Security Bureau (贵德县公安局) is paying 262,500 yuan (about US$39,000) for each S3 vehicle with its parking-violation camera system, according to the Oct. 28 award notice. The winning bidder, a Beijing contractor, names the maker in its signed declaration: Shenzhen Yilu Intelligent Technology (深圳亿录智能科技).

Yilu describes itself as a maker of police and traffic equipment, from body cameras and breathalyzers to speed guns. On its S3 product page, Yilu says it developed the vehicle with Neolix (新石器), a maker of driverless delivery vans, and built it on Neolix's X3 chassis.

Yilu says the S3 has a top speed of 50 kilometers per hour (about 31 mph) and travels 100 to 120 km (about 60 to 75 miles) per charge. It reads license plates and stamps each photo with time and place as evidence. Yilu says it can be monitored and taken over remotely by phone or PC.

A keyword search of national procurement-notice titles from May through October turned up one other Qinghai police force buying patrol robots. In July, the Huangyuan County police (湟源县公安局) agreed to pay 575,000 yuan (about US$86,000) each for two patrol robots from another supplier, according to its award notice, which doesn't describe them.

China had 47,000 driverless delivery vans in use at the end of the first quarter of 2026, up from just over 10,000 in 2024, according to an industry association report cited by the Economic Observer (经济观察网). By the outlet's count of vans in use in China, Neolix had 17,000, a 36.2% share.

Sources: 中国政府采购网 China Government Procurement Network (Guide County police award notice), 中国政府采购网 China Government Procurement Network (bidder's final quote, attachment), 中国政府采购网 China Government Procurement Network (bidder's domestic-product declaration, attachment), 深圳亿录智能科技 Shenzhen Yilu Intelligent Technology (S3 product page), 深圳亿录智能科技 Shenzhen Yilu Intelligent Technology (company homepage), 中国政府采购网 China Government Procurement Network (Huangyuan County police award notice), 经济观察网 Economic Observer

Editor: Ian Lamont