Two bilingual, humanoid traffic-control robots made their first public appearance at intersections around the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center on 19 July, just as the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) entered its busiest day. As reported by People’s Daily’s Shanghai bureau, the 1.7-metre-tall units can sense vehicle density, issue voice instructions in Mandarin and English, and direct pedestrians to the nearest metro entrance—functions designed to support police in managing an estimated 120,000 daily visitors, including thousands of foreign delegates. Each robot performs more than 100 environmental scans per minute and automatically returns to a docking station for recharging when battery levels fall, according to vendor Qingtian Zhixing. The devices feed real-time traffic data to Shanghai’s public-security command centre, enabling dynamic signal-timing adjustments that reduced average vehicle wait times by 12 seconds during peak hours on 18–19 July. For international business travellers attending WAIC—or any future Shanghai mega-events—the pilot illustrates how Chinese cities are blending AI and mobility management to smooth last-mile journeys. Delegates arriving on 24-hour visa-free transit can expect clearer way-finding in English and quicker taxi flows, which in turn helps companies pack more meetings into tight itineraries. Municipal authorities say the robots are part of a broader “smart policing” toolkit that could be rolled out at Pudong Airport’s taxi holding area and the National Exhibition and Convention Center, home to the China International Import Expo. Corporate event planners may need to liaise with police earlier for vehicle-pass applications, as robot-guided lanes rely on QR-code windscreen tags for priority entry. While the units attracted social-media praise for their novelty, privacy advocates note that the system records facial images for crowd analytics—information that foreign travellers should be aware of under China’s Personal Information Protection Law. Companies should brief employees on local data-collection norms and advise them to follow robot instructions, which carry the same legal weight as directives from human officers.
