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The day after Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com Inc.’s midyear sale, a company drone took off from a playground in the city of Xi’an to deliver one of the orders in a football-sized box to a village in the mountains to the south.

Self-driving shuttle buses will be hauling riders around downtown Columbus later this year, a significant move as the city begins initiatives aimed at making it a “smart city” for transportation.

In a bid to achieve the practical use of self-driving flying cars in the 2020s, the government will establish a public-private council possibly within this year to discuss safety issues, technological development and other matters, Japanese newspaper The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.

The use of cargo sensors with trailer tracking is on the rise, suppliers said, while motor carriers work to improve utilization and boost driver satisfaction with the technology.

The development of self-driving trucks and how they might one day revolutionize the shipment of goods inland has been widely reported. However, while lower on the radar screen, automated container ports are increasingly available for use and already have begun to benefit motor carriers in several ways, industry experts said.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning for both automated container port management and trucks and ships is already in use or under development in a few key ways.

Autonomous technology will be among the topics to be examined at the Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee meetings scheduled for July 30-31, federal trucking regulators announced.

Nikola Motor Co. has awarded a contract to Nel Hydrogen for 448 electrolyzers — which separate water into hydrogen and oxygen — and associated fueling equipment, as Nikola prepares to roll out a fueling network in the United States of 30 stations to support commercial and passenger vehicles operating on hydrogen fuel cells.

NEW YORK — Waiting is so yesterday. Shoppers increasingly want their orders to arrive at their doorsteps as soon as they click a button, whether it’s a hot meal, groceries or a sofa. In response, retailers are betting big on delivery services to drop off packages faster.

Preparing for autonomous vehicles on American roads will mean more than getting used to being in a car without a steering wheel.