Mar. 25, 2025
Source: Ebang Power
On March 23, the 2025 Wuhan Marathon (“Hanma”) fired its starting gun along the banks of the Yangtze River. This World Athletics Gold Label event brought together 40,000 runners from 67 countries and regions, racing through a “sea of pink and white blossoms” in a grand celebration of sport and city.
Rino.ai, in collaboration with SF Express Hubei, deployed L4-level autonomous driving technology for the first time in the marathon’s finish area logistics. The innovative introduction of unmanned delivery vehicles injected new technological momentum into event operations, delivering smarter, faster, and greener services to the high-demand finish zone.
Tech-Enabled Logistics: Solving the Finish Zone Delivery Challenge
The marathon finish area is a critical service point, where tens of thousands of runners require rapid access to water, food, and other recovery supplies after intense physical exertion. Traditional manual delivery struggles with the sheer volume of people and complex movement patterns, often creating bottlenecks in supply efficiency.
To address this, Rino.ai and SF Express deployed customized autonomous delivery vehicles at the entrance of OCT Happy Valley, establishing a 300-meter lateral loop to dynamically transport bottled water and other supplies in real time. This “dynamic circulation” system ensured that replenishments matched runner arrival patterns, preventing both shortages and overstock.
Technology in Action: How Autonomous Vehicles Supported the Race
The unmanned vehicles used were powered by Rino.ai’s proprietary L4 autonomous driving platform, with multi-scenario adaptability and precision performance:
High-Precision Localization & Obstacle Avoidance – Through multi-sensor fusion, the vehicles achieved centimeter-level positioning and intelligent path planning, ensuring safe navigation even in dense crowds.
Low-Carbon Operations – Fully electric drive with intelligent energy management supported the marathon’s green and sustainable event goals, reducing carbon footprint.
Each vehicle could carry 1,454 bottles of water per trip and complete over 50 delivery loops in a single day — more than five times the efficiency of traditional manual transport. The entire process was zero-contact, significantly reducing the risk of supply contamination.
Setting an Industry Benchmark: The Convergence of Smart Logistics and Sports
“This partnership marks an important milestone in extending smart logistics technology to public event scenarios,” said Chen Jian, Head of Marketing at Rino.ai. “As a World Athletics Gold Label race, the Wuhan Marathon demands both service excellence and innovation. The successful use of autonomous vehicles here offers a replicable ‘technology + sports’ solution for the industry.”
Chen added:
“High-visibility, high-complexity events like marathons are the perfect stage to validate both the reliability of our technology and its social value. In the future, we will deepen our collaboration with SF Express to explore more city-level smart service scenarios.”
The collaboration between Rino.ai and SF Express demonstrates that China’s smart logistics technology is now fully capable of supporting world-class international events. Beyond just efficient deliveries, these autonomous vehicles represent a new model for the digital transformation of large-scale urban events — where technology, sustainability, and human experience come together on the global stage.
