Associated Incidents
On April 8th, a netizen in Xianyang, Shaanxi Province, posted a video claiming that a ZTO Express "Jiushi Unmanned Delivery Vehicle" malfunctioned during a delivery—its left front wheel got stuck on a fallen electric scooter, and it continued to drag it along, seemingly unaware of the situation. This incident has raised public concerns about the safety of unmanned delivery vehicles.
ZTO Express has not yet provided a clear response regarding the incident of its unmanned delivery vehicle dragging an electric scooter. According to witnesses, the unmanned vehicle was in routine delivery mode at the time of the incident, carrying out a delivery task near Fengzhi North Road in Xianyang City.
Around 1 PM, a reporter from Huashang Daily's Dafeng News contacted ZTO Express's official customer service hotline (95311) multiple times to report the situation, but received no clear response. The reporter further contacted a ZTO Express branch near Fengzhi North Road in Xianyang. A staff member stated that the branch does not currently use unmanned delivery services and was unaware of the ownership of the unmanned delivery vehicle in question.
Reporters found that the vehicle involved was a "Jiushi Unmanned Vehicle" manufactured by "Jiushi Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd." Public information shows that the vehicle was gradually put into commercial use in 2023, focusing on "contactless delivery," and had previously been deployed in more than 20 cities including Shanghai and Hangzhou.
Incident Reconstruction: Accident Encountered During Driving, Failure to Slow Down in Advance Caused Electric Bike Wheel to Get Stuck
Real-time monitoring video of the unmanned vehicle involved shows that at 9:11:32 AM on April 8th, the unmanned vehicle arrived at an intersection in Xianyang City and waited for a red light. After the light turned green, the vehicle prepared to start, but a pedestrian was crossing the zebra crossing. The unmanned vehicle slowed down and waited for the pedestrian to cross before proceeding normally through the intersection.
At 9:11:41 AM, when the vehicle reached the middle of the intersection, it encountered an electric bike that had fallen to the ground. At this time, the unmanned vehicle failed to detect the electric bike in advance, resulting in the left front wheel of the vehicle colliding with the front wheel of the electric bike. Due to the "unique" angle of impact, the front wheel of the electric bike got stuck in the gap between the left front wheel of the unmanned vehicle. At 9:11:44 AM, the autonomous vehicle detected a collision and noticeably slowed down, but then accelerated back to normal speed through the intersection. At 9:13 AM, a passing vehicle encountered the autonomous vehicle towing an electric bicycle. A netizen subsequently filmed the incident and posted it on social media at 9:22 AM, sparking concerns about "intelligent driving."
The technology company involved responded: The vehicle was manually stopped after detecting the wheel abnormality, and technical personnel have intervened in the investigation.
Around 2 PM, Jiushi Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. responded to the situation, stating that preliminary verification showed the autonomous logistics vehicle made contact with a fallen electric bicycle left behind in a previous traffic accident while passing through the intersection. The vehicle's safety system immediately triggered a defensive mechanism to slow down and brake. No injuries were reported. The vehicle has been suspended from operation and is cooperating with the traffic police investigation.
The company stated that, according to the vehicle's operation logs, the perception system had identified the abnormal road conditions before the incident, but there was room for improvement in its judgment of the morphological characteristics of the side-falling electric vehicle. The hardware defense module activated normally, triggering a level-three braking response after the left front wheel made contact, which met the preset safety standards. Currently, the company is collaborating with third-party technical institutions to conduct multi-dimensional scenario reproduction tests.
The company expressed its deepest apologies for the public concern caused by this incident and stated that it will cooperate with regulatory authorities to the highest standards, strictly fulfill its corporate responsibilities, and continuously improve the scenario adaptability of its autonomous driving system.