The “wait for the light to stop the watch” has actually arrived. Takeout riders who wait for the red light time will be calculated separately and postponed during the delivery time. On July 31, Meituan (03690) and Suzhou Public Security jointly launched the first official version of the “Wait for the Light Stop Watch” function for takeaway riders. Currently, actual road tests have been carried out on Suzhou roads that are the first to access traffic data.
According to the test video provided by Meituan, when the rider waits for a red light at a traffic intersection, the page shows the red light countdown reading information, and the Meituan rider's AI safety assistant issued a reminder message “Stop the red light, the waiting time is being recorded, and the delivery time of this order will be extended when the order ends”. Riders can also see prohibited road information in their area on this page, choose different delivery routes, or decide the delivery route independently according to their needs.
After delivery is completed, a pop-up window on the rider page indicates “order number, cumulative time until red light”, and the system tells “postpone the latest delivery time accordingly” to complete the “wait for the light to stop the watch” function.
People related to Meituan Rider Safety Products explained that they are grateful to Suzhou for taking the lead in the pilot project. The current product has already been connected to relevant data provided by Suzhou. The new policy will take the lead in starting pilot projects in Gusu District and Suzhou Industrial Park. The first batch will have a total of about 1,100 intersections.
According to its disclosure, the implementation of the “Waiting Light Stop Watch” mainly relies on two parts of data information. One is the rider's position trajectory signal, and the other is real-time traffic light status data in the rider's area. After Meituan is connected to traffic data, the rider app can determine the status of riders and other lights in real time by combining location and trajectory.
What if the rider has multiple orders? “If a rider has multiple orders while waiting for a red light, then the time spent waiting for the light also counts as time for each order.” The Meituan Distribution Safety Technical Team explained, “Judging from recent internal closed road tests, the riders had a smooth experience. Many riders also gave us some detailed suggestions. We have recorded them one by one.”
The rider shows the Meituan App page: the left side is the timing page with red lights such as intersections, etc., and the right side is the page where the timing is postponed after delivery is completed. (Photo: Courtesy of the riders interviewed)
According to public reports, Meituan's development of this feature stemmed from riders' suggestions. In 2022, Meituan developed and launched a “time compensation mechanism” for riders, that is, delivery will supplement riders with delays due to red lights, complicated road conditions, etc. encountered by riders within the total delivery time. This function has covered the whole country.
According to Meituan, with the official launch of this feature, Beijing and Wuxi are already undergoing simultaneous docking tests. More than 20 cities, including Shanghai, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Nanchang, and Lanzhou, are also being evaluated, and cities that meet the conditions will be launched one after another.