A 5G-enabled, driverless minibus outfitted as a mobile retail store caught the attention recently of dozens of people in Beijing eager to get a look and try it out by making purchases.

Simply by waving their hands, buyers in the crowd at Shougang Industrial Park in Shijingshan district could summon the unmanned minibus to stop near them. Consumers could push a virtual button on the vehicle"s screen to buy more than 20 items such as water or souvenirs from the Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

When the minibus is not around, buyers can place an order on their smartphones. The vehicle then drives itself to them.

Behind this futuristic mobile retail outlet is a 5G-enabled, intelligent vehicle networking system deployed in the industrial park where several events of the Winter Olympics will take place.

The system was developed by China Unicom, the official telecommunications service provider for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. It is just one of the 5G-enabled, cutting-edge applications that are being tested as the sports event approaches.

Near the end of October, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics marked its 100-day countdown. The organizing committee for the Games and companies involved are working overtime to ensure that everything is ready for the event to be a smart sports gathering relying on cutting-edge communications technologies.

The 5G-enabled, intelligent vehicle networking system covers 1 million square meters of Shougang Industrial Park, said Liu Qi, a senior technical expert at China Unicom"s smart city research institute.

Thanks to integration of 5G technologies and the Beidou Navigation Satellite System, the unmanned vehicles are able to achieve continuous, high-precision positioning within 10 centimeters.

Liu said the intelligent vehicle networking system is able to support four types of unmanned vehicles and can demonstrate 10 types of potential uses, such as guiding an unmanned ferry or an unmanned delivery vehicle in complex environments where people and vehicles are mixed.

It is expected to bring the first systematic application of Level 4 intelligent vehicle networking business to an Olympic scenario, China Unicom said. L4 autonomy means the vehicle can drive itself in most conditions without a human driver.