Chinese autonomous logistics firm Neolix has been named among the first batch of companies approved by the Ministry of Transport (MOT) to begin public-road sandbox testing of driverless delivery vehicles in Malaysia. The approval was granted under the country’s National Regulatory Sandbox (NRS) framework for autonomous delivery vehicles, the Beijing-based company announced.
The move is notable not just because it puts driverless vans on Malaysian public roads, but because it plants a second major Chinese autonomous-delivery player on local soil – setting Neolix directly against rival Zelos, whose vehicles have been running with Pos Malaysia since January. Two of China’s largest RoboVan makers are now vying for the same Malaysian last-mile market.
Road trials are expected to begin in the coming weeks in Cyberjaya, Malaysia’s flagship smart city and tech hub just south of Kuala Lumpur. The company says testing will span closed-road, semi-open and public-road environments across Cyberjaya and several other locations, evaluating vehicle performance under real-world urban conditions – think traffic signals, intersections and speed bumps. Testing is set to be carried out in phases throughout the second half of 2026.
Cyberjaya is home to Malaysia’s official Malaysia Autonomous Vehicle (MyAV) testing route, a roughly 7 km public-road testbed developed jointly by the MOT and Futurise under the National Regulatory Sandbox initiative. The route has been operational since around 2019 to 2020, letting companies validate their autonomous systems on live public roads before seeking wider approvals.
Companies in the programme must first clear technical and safety evaluations by the MyAV Evaluation Committee before they’re allowed to operate on public roads. The NRS guideline also doesn’t override existing rules – trials still have to comply with the Road Transport Act 1987 and prevailing road traffic regulations.
Neolix’s Malaysia pilot will be run with a consortium of local and regional partners including Tiong Nam Logistics, Asia Mobiliti (operator of Trek) and MindHub. Together, the group plans to evaluate several use cases – express parcel delivery, campus logistics and on-demand e-commerce fulfilment.
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China can’t wait to dominate our economy and local logistics companies can’t wait to get rid of their workers. As long as we are not strong and unable to produce own technologies, this is the outcome. Decades of loop sided policies on all aspects especially education and industries has led Malaysia to this.
you know its not specific to malaysia right . autonomous vehicles have the potential to disrupt industries in every single country in the world, china itself included.
Trucking is not for human beings, my father in law nearly died from that sort of career. Trucker’s unions in the US for instance will whine and moan about the loss of jobs but if you got paid to sniff urine, is that really considered a job worth doing even if you got paid? The same thing goes for trucking. Sitting for hours on end day in day out is just not for a human being. It’s a good thing this industry is going away. Grab will get rid of drivers the moment robotaxi like EVs are a proven product. Less cut for the human maximum profit for corporations. Grab drivers are not like truck drivers they dont do it all the time, they have the luxury to just stop picking up jobs for the rest of the day if they dont want to. There is a case to be made here where Malaysia can say no to Grab running robotaxi like ventures in the future so as to protect side income of many who rely on it. Whether politicians are bought out by Grab, time will tell. But trucking is not worth saving in any scenario. Even bus driving can done away with if FSD gets upto shape.
china couldn’t care less about our economy. we are a tiny 3rd world country.
hopefully no need pay extra RM32k for FSD
can sack all the lazy entitled drirvers
if these can survive malaysian road, it will surely survive almost anywhere. our road “condition” is the best. bring it on!
Not sure how many lane splitting motorcyclist are going to get caught under the tires.