"Neolix Autonomous Vehicles" Expands to Japan, Launching Driverless Delivery Services in Ishikari City | Yunqi Capital

"Yunqi Tech π" shares updates from Yunqi Capital's portfolio companies, exploring how cutting-edge technology pushes the boundaries of real-world applications and tracking the present and future of tech commercialization. In this edition of "Yunqi Tech π," we bring you the latest on Neolix.

➤➤➤ The rise of convenient e-commerce shopping has generated massive demand for parcel delivery, and the pandemic-driven surge in "contactless delivery" brought autonomous delivery vehicles into the public spotlight overnight. Whether these vehicles can serve as a meaningful supplement to urban logistics capacity — effectively addressing chronic challenges like courier shortages and stubbornly high operating costs, while improving convenience for city dwellers — remains a highly anticipated question.

In recent years, to vigorously support autonomous delivery, the Japanese government has successively introduced multiple policies, including the "Standard Relaxation Certification System for Automated Delivery Robots" and the "Road Use Management Guidelines for Road Testing of Specified Automated Delivery Robots," creating favorable conditions for autonomous vehicles to operate on public roads and provide delivery services.

Notably, Kyocera — the information and communications company that maintains a deep strategic partnership with Neolix, a Yunqi Capital Series A portfolio company — recently partnered with logistics firm Yamato Transport to conduct a proof-of-concept experiment for parcel delivery on public roads in Ishikari City. The test vehicle used was the Neolix autonomous delivery vehicle, whose cargo compartment features a modular design with 20 parcel lockers to accommodate packages of various sizes. Equipped with LiDAR, cameras, and multiple other sensor systems plus positioning devices, the vehicle can travel at 15 km/h while performing object detection, environmental target detection, safety checks, and recognition of traffic lights, lane markings, and road signs — ensuring safe operation.

On-site, we observed the autonomous vehicle being loaded with pre-ordered parcels and traveling along its designated route. Upon arrival at the delivery point, recipients could open the locker using a pickup code on their phones and retrieve their packages — a remarkably convenient process. A staff member on-site remarked: "Our end-to-end autonomous delivery demonstration went very smoothly. Multiple media outlets present also expressed high praise, and we believe the concept of smart city infrastructure services will gain broader recognition among media and the public."

This aligns precisely with Neolix's ultimate mission: to one day make autonomous vehicles ubiquitous worldwide. "In fact, Neolix entered Japan as early as two years ago, engaging in in-depth discussions with Kyocera on business models and operational scenarios for autonomous delivery vehicles," said Neolix's overseas lead. "Our partnership has now entered a phase of comprehensive deepening. We hope to build on our previous successes to continue working hand in hand, exploring and unlocking more service scenarios, and truly establishing a foothold for autonomous vehicles in the Japanese market — delivering accessible services to the public."

Masayoshi Nakade, sales manager at Yamato Transport's Sapporo Solutions Branch, is equally optimistic: "As the end user of these autonomous vehicles, we spent a year and a half testing them in snow-covered Hokkaido specifically to obtain a higher-quality product."

Many Japanese netizens have shown keen interest in this autonomous vehicle trial in Ishikari City. They expressed both astonishment and anticipation at seeing this "futuristic, tech-forward" Neolix vehicle operating on home soil, hoping more such vehicles would arrive and become indispensable "good friends" in their daily lives.

Neolix's overseas lead is fully confident: "We have a smart manufacturing factory with annual capacity of tens of thousands of units, capable of meeting large-scale deployment needs across different regions. Meanwhile, Neolix has accumulated extensive operational experience and massive datasets in autonomous delivery, autonomous retail, and other domains — all of which lay a solid practical foundation and reference framework for our later operations in Japan. We hope that in the coming years, our autonomous vehicles can serve as a best-practice model deployed across Japan, allowing more Japanese citizens to enjoy the novel services that autonomous driving brings, while effectively alleviating the social challenge of labor shortages driven by the country's aging population."

Yunqi Capital remains focused on "technology innovation, industrial empowerment," with intelligent driving being one of our sustained areas of focus. Beyond Neolix, Yunqi made early bets on outstanding companies including DeepRoute.ai, Juefx Technology, and ZHUISHI Technology. We continue to track exceptional startups in relevant sectors and look forward to growing alongside more technical founders.