Robotaxis are old news — China’s AI delivery vans are here, and their terrifying mission has everyone talking
When the end justifies the means.
China’s autonomous delivery vans are rapidly becoming a global meme, gaining traction for their relentless and often chaotic determination to complete their routes, no matter what obstacles stand in their way. Viral clips showcasing these driverless AI vehicles have exploded across social media, depicting them plowing through fresh concrete, dragging motorcycles, bouncing over cratered roads, and even cruising down shallow rivers.
According to The Daily Dot, thousands of these driverless vans have been deployed across dozens of cities in China as part of a modernization effort for package delivery. However, it seems these cutting-edge AI vehicles are often ill-suited for the nation’s narrow backstreets and everyday cultural practices, frequently turning what should be efficient technology into a kind of slapstick comedy.
These full-sized driverless vans are designed to fill service gaps in both big cities and remote towns. While residents in some states in the US might complain about the havoc caused by robotaxis, China is dealing with a whole different level of autonomous vehicle antics. These vans really started making waves on Chinese social media, and by January, their chaotic adventures began spilling into international waters.
The antics of these bumbling AI vehicles make you question how smart they really are
One X user, @klara_sjo, put it perfectly, writing, “In China, driverless delivery vans have become a total meme, they plow through crumbling roads, fresh concrete, motorcycles, anything.” That video alone racked up over 6.1 million views, showing vans trying to bridge uneven gaps, swerving over grains at top speed, bucking on unpaved roads, driving into wet cement, and dragging helpless motorbikes along.
There’s even a clip of one refusing to move from an intersection until a human gives it a swift kick in the rear. Another compilation on TikTok, shared by @timothy_bramlett, highlights just how determined these vans are. They push against barriers, get stuck on things, plow through construction sites, or simply cruise down the middle of a local river.
The core of the problem seems to be their programming. These vans are given one mission: get the package to its destination. They aren’t programmed to ask whether that’s still a good idea. China has thousands of these vehicles deployed, and while human operators monitor them remotely, by the time they can intervene, the van has often already made its choice.
The technology is improving, but right now, these vans genuinely treat every obstacle like a suggestion – suggestions they absolutely do not take! They can even get really confused when faced with multiple speed bumps in a row.
When evolving, modern technology meets fixed, old systems
Part of the issue also stems from a clash between the new technology and old norms. One Instagram video shows an elderly woman desperately trying to stop a persistent van from running over the vegetables she had laid out in the road to dry. This is a common practice in China, similar to drying grains.
At the same time, a fascinating quirk of human culture leads many viewers to humanize these vans, or at least compare them to hapless animals. China Insider featured a viral video of a driverless van struggling over a very rough, unpaved road, its headlights blinking out of sync as it bounces and leaps until it finally stalls.
The person filming can’t stop laughing. The caption reads, “POV: this delivery robot truck is fighting for its life,” and a commenter, @lilitbilisi_travel, added, “Poor little things eyes looked so hopeful, then they got a nervous twitch.”
Of course, these vehicles don’t have eyes or a life, but some of the van companies encourage this humanization by painting cute faces on the front. It’s hard not to feel a bit sorry for the one in a video posted by @pipidaily2 on TikTok, which suffered a similar fate and even seemed to have a cute little “voice” possibly announcing that it was broken.
This might be why people are responding with less vitriol than they do to other autonomous vehicles like Waymos or Teslas. As @van00sa on X mused, “If only I could live as carefree as a Chinese delivery van.”
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