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Rui Ma

@ruima • 78,342 subscribers

AI, EVs, Robotics, Education, China. Mom. Also I help edit @techbuzzchina. Views personal. Ask me anything

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A reporter recently asked what we might see in China that would really surprise people — something we wouldn’t find in the U.S. Across most of the technologies we looked at — quantum, eVTOL, EVs, AI applications — I wouldn’t say there’s anything entirely unique to China. There’s usually a counterpart in the U.S., whether in a lab, a startup, or a pilot. The real difference is scale — how quickly things move from concept to implementation. If I had to point to one example that captures this difference, that you might actually see on a trip to China in the next year or two, it would be autonomous deliveries. At the Logistics Expo in Shenzhen last month, at the new Automation exhibition hall, we met teams from autonomous logistics vehicle providers such as Neolix, ZelosTech, Meituan, and $JD. Neolix had just reached 10,000 vehicles, roughly ten times what it had a year earlier, and ZelosTech had hit the same milestone. In contrast, U.S. companies such as Nuro have been developing similar systems for years (9 to be exact) and have raised over US $2.3 billion, but their operations still seem to be “pre-scale” and "upcoming." (Correct me if I'm wrong.) It's probably a confluence of reasons but I'm sure it helps that the government is so hands on with the rollout in China. In my Deep Tech Trip Takeaways, I wrote that what stood out most in China wasn’t any single company or product, but the structure that tied them together, enabled by the government's strategic policies and services. Shenzhen’s rollout of autonomous delivery fits that description well. The city just published a report on “functional autonomous vehicles,” giving rare visibility into real-world activity. The August 2025 report — released in time for the Expo — summarized the following: - 764 vehicles operating across the city, including delivery, sanitation, and inspection units - 3,185 km of public roads open to autonomous operations - 230,000 km traveled and about 900,000 deliveries completed in one month (750,000 express parcels, 150,000 fresh goods) - SF Express (a big client of Neolix) led with 504,000 orders, followed by Meituan with 152,000 - Each vehicle averaged roughly 200 deliveries per hour, about twice a traditional courier van - Cost per delivery was around ¥0.1 (≈ 1 U.S. cent) lower than human delivery — not a major saving by any means, but important because new tech is often loss making in the beginnning - Accident rate: 0.04 per 10,000 km; manual intervention: 0.016 per km; public complaints: 23 cases citywide - And of course, I should highlight that Shenzhen isn't the only city working on this, it's just the most advanced that I found It’s not yet a profit story, but it does show that autonomous logistics in China has reached a level of operational maturity and regulatory acceptance that’s still emerging elsewhere. Shenzhen illustrates how local governments in China are building the deep infrastructure — physical, regulatory, and logistical — that allows new technologies to scale in practice, not just in theory.

A reporter recently asked what we might see in China that would really surprise people — something we wouldn’t find in the U.S. Across most of the technologies we looked at — quantum, eVTOL, EVs, AI applications — I wouldn’t say there’s anything entirely unique to China. There’s usually a counterpart in the U.S., whether in a lab, a startup, or a pilot. The real difference is scale — how quickly things move from concept to implementation. If I had to point to one example that captures this difference, that you might actually see on a trip to China in the next year or two, it would be autonomous deliveries. At the Logistics Expo in Shenzhen last month, at the new Automation exhibition hall, we met teams from autonomous logistics vehicle providers such as Neolix, ZelosTech, Meituan, and $JD. Neolix had just reached 10,000 vehicles, roughly ten times what it had a year earlier, and ZelosTech had hit the same milestone. In contrast, U.S. companies such as Nuro have been developing similar systems for years (9 to be exact) and have raised over US $2.3 billion, but their operations still seem to be “pre-scale” and "upcoming." (Correct me if I'm wrong.) It's probably a confluence of reasons but I'm sure it helps that the government is so hands on with the rollout in China. In my Deep Tech Trip Takeaways, I wrote that what stood out most in China wasn’t any single company or product, but the structure that tied them together, enabled by the government's strategic policies and services. Shenzhen’s rollout of autonomous delivery fits that description well. The city just published a report on “functional autonomous vehicles,” giving rare visibility into real-world activity. The August 2025 report — released in time for the Expo — summarized the following: - 764 vehicles operating across the city, including delivery, sanitation, and inspection units - 3,185 km of public roads open to autonomous operations - 230,000 km traveled and about 900,000 deliveries completed in one month (750,000 express parcels, 150,000 fresh goods) - SF Express (a big client of Neolix) led with 504,000 orders, followed by Meituan with 152,000 - Each vehicle averaged roughly 200 deliveries per hour, about twice a traditional courier van - Cost per delivery was around ¥0.1 (≈ 1 U.S. cent) lower than human delivery — not a major saving by any means, but important because new tech is often loss making in the beginnning - Accident rate: 0.04 per 10,000 km; manual intervention: 0.016 per km; public complaints: 23 cases citywide - And of course, I should highlight that Shenzhen isn't the only city working on this, it's just the most advanced that I found It’s not yet a profit story, but it does show that autonomous logistics in China has reached a level of operational maturity and regulatory acceptance that’s still emerging elsewhere. Shenzhen illustrates how local governments in China are building the deep infrastructure — physical, regulatory, and logistical — that allows new technologies to scale in practice, not just in theory.

120,643 次观看

Look at this line for Songmont on Huaihai Road in Shanghai (one of the busiest shopping streets in all of China) (I was so proud I knew what the brand sold when my parents were like, what is happening?? Is there a giveaway? Lol They sell fancy handbags)

21,114 次观看

🧵 Gonna make this a robot mega thread! Humanoid robots galore at World AI Conference in Shanghai. I don’t even know what this brand is but it was running amok (nah its human controller was close behind but still impressive speed)

35,830 次观看

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3 miles away from Beijing Capital Airport and it looks like I’m in a 6th tier village (or lower). Lots of development still to go in China

3 miles away from Beijing Capital Airport and it looks like I’m in a 6th tier village (or lower). Lots of development still to go in China

1,670,745 次观看 • 9 个月前

I’m in a top 100 “town” in China. It’s more than an hour south of Suzhou & 400K people. It’s below “5th tier” because it’s not a city. As you can see, it’s still quite developed. There is an OK mall nearby but this is a more typical retail area which is chock full of children’s study / activity centers. I counted at least ten calligraphy / art / dance / tutoring / programming after school The involution is strong

I’m in a top 100 “town” in China. It’s more than an hour south of Suzhou & 400K people. It’s below “5th tier” because it’s not a city. As you can see, it’s still quite developed. There is an OK mall nearby but this is a more typical retail area which is chock full of children’s study / activity centers. I counted at least ten calligraphy / art / dance / tutoring / programming after school The involution is strong

26,637 次观看 • 2 个月前

This Chinese tier 4 city downtown mall is really just as nice as any mid-end mall in tier 1 cities now, lots of major jewelry brands, Starbucks, Manner AND Algebraist Coffee, 4D VR gaming (see girl at end of clip shooting things) What a huge difference from ten years ago

This Chinese tier 4 city downtown mall is really just as nice as any mid-end mall in tier 1 cities now, lots of major jewelry brands, Starbucks, Manner AND Algebraist Coffee, 4D VR gaming (see girl at end of clip shooting things) What a huge difference from ten years ago

23,772 次观看 • 5 个月前

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