Driverless minibuses serve as mobile libraries in Guiyang, SW China

Passengers read on a driverless minibus in Guiyang city, southwest China's Guizhou province. (Photo courtesy of the digital and cultural service center of the Guizhou Provincial Library)

In Guanshanhu district of Guiyang, capital of southwest China's Guizhou province, a fleet of driverless minibuses threads through urban traffic. Their windows are printed with eye-catching QR codes and curated reading lists, signaling a new kind of public service.

Sun, a tourist from Zunyi city traveling with her child, scanned a QR code as soon as she sat down and was immediately drawn to the vast collection of audiobooks available. "Listening to audiobooks is a good fit for the ride, and since my child can't read many Chinese characters yet, listening with headphones makes it easy to follow the whole story," she said.

The minibuses offer AI-powered reading recommendations, listening sections, and children's reading areas, ensuring most passengers can find content suited to their needs.

Bringing a digital reading platform onto driverless minibuses to create mobile libraries is a new initiative by the Guizhou Provincial Library, aimed at expanding public access to reading materials.

The driverless loop route, launched for trial operation this April by PIX Moving in Guanshanhu district, links museums, libraries, business districts and scenic areas along the way. A one-way trip takes only about 20 minutes.

"We looked at our passenger flow and found tourists and families with children make up the largest share, exactly the target audience for our campaign to promote reading," said Luo Jing, director of the library's digital and cultural service center.

"Short urban rides are ideal for listening to audiobooks, which fits closely with our library's digital reading platform," Luo added.

The digital resources built into the driverless minibuses are drawn from the Guizhou Digital Library, a brand of the Guizhou Provincial Library. This year, the library fully upgraded its mini-program, bringing together 1 million e-books, 1.5 million audiobook episodes, and 36,000 video lectures, all offered free of charge.

To suit mobile settings, the mini-program optimized its audiobook, picture book, and recommended reading sections. It incorporated local cultural features and embedded an AI that can summarize a book's plot and automatically recommend similar titles with a single click, lowering the barrier for readers. The driverless minibuses are just one example of the library's broader efforts.

Photo shows driverless minibuses on a street in Guiyang city, southwest China's Guizhou province. (Photo from guizeco.com)

In recent years, the library has continued to bring reading into a wider range of settings across the province.

"In 2025, we built smart libraries in Pingyuan ancient town in Zhijin county, Bijie city, and Qingyan ancient town in Guiyang," Luo said.

So far, the province has established 45 digital rural libraries and expanded the use of QR codes in everyday settings, including rural libraries, bus routes and airports. Incentive mechanisms have also been introduced to encourage more people to read.

"Traditional libraries are limited by their physical space and location, and many residents don't have time to visit them in person. Our goal is to take reading beyond the library and into people's daily lives," Luo said.

She sees combining online and offline services as a key way to promote reading. In the past, she noted, digital libraries focused mainly on academic resources such as research papers and ancient texts, serving mostly teachers and researchers. The current mini-program, by contrast, is simple to use, offers rich audio and visual content, and is suitable for readers of all ages.

"The driverless minibuses use technology to create a scenario that works for both cultural tourism and reading promotion. We are discussing cooperation on study tours and the integration of library services into different settings, so that more people can benefit from the high-quality public services our library provides," Luo said.