Vending machines for cars aren’t exactly the newest thing. However, China has previewed not just its own example, but cat-shaped ones which will soon open in Nanjing and Shanghai, according to CNET. It may be a vending machine, but there are some prerequisites to its usage, though.

Interested customers will have to have a score of over 700 with China’s Zhima Credit system, as well as being an accredited Alibaba Super Member. From that point, a bespoke smartphone app allows said customers to select vehicles from the vending machine either for a three-day test drive, or to purchase outright.

Upon verification by either a log-in code or facial recognition, the vehicle will be delivered by the vending machine to ground level. There are restrictions, naturally; users are limited to one test drive of each vehicle, and are allowed up to five test drives in the first two months of the programme.

“Our thinking behind the car vending machine is focused on helping users solve certain problems they face in the car-buying process. To do that, we are building a physical, experiential store that offers staffless car pickup through facial-recognition, three-day ‘deep’ test drives and a one-stop shop that displays cars from all mainstream brands at once,” said Huan Lu, marketing director of the automotive division at Tmall, operated by Alibaba.

Unlike the other vehicular vending machine in Singapore, which accommodates primarily luxury cars, Alibaba’s concept setup in China covers a broader and rather more mainstream range of vehicles.

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