As the picturesque city of Hangzhou in east China’s Zhejiang Province welcomes a surge of tourists during the five-day May Day holiday, a squadron of intelligent traffic management robots has taken to the streets to assist with traffic management and visitor services.

Starting Friday, the first day of the holiday, 15 smart traffic robots have been deployed across Hangzhou, including major tourist destinations and commercial hubs.

As the country’s first dedicated traffic management robot squadron, the special “police force” aims to alleviate pressure on human officers while enhancing the experience for millions of holidaymakers.

Pedestrians who approach the robots can interact with them via a simple touch-screen interface. When a tourist asked for directions to the renowned West Lake scenic area, the robot instantly generated a recommended route.

While tourist assistance is a visible feature, the robots’ core function remains traffic management. At the heavily trafficked intersection of Tiyuchang Road and Yan’an Road, the robots coordinated with the local signal control system to perform standard traffic directing gestures, signaling vehicles to proceed, stop, or turn.

“My first impression is just how advanced this is,” said a tourist.

“I think it’s a great idea. There’s so much foot traffic here. Relying solely on human officers would be incredibly demanding. This is exactly what a smart, technology-driven city should look like,” a local resident said.

Equipped with high-performance visual recognition algorithms, the robots can identify common traffic violations, such as bike riders overstepping the designated line while stopping at intersections, or motorbike riders not wearing helmets.

When infractions are detected, the robot issues polite but firm verbal reminders.

Chen Sanchuan, a traffic police officer, noted the practical advantages of the new technology.

“The robots can keep working after being charged. They are deployed according to our actual management needs. Since public travel is relatively light at night, we put them on duty during morning and evening rush hours, as well as around midday when activity in nearby commercial areas peaks. They patrol the streets alongside us, helping us manage traffic more efficiently,” said Chen.

According to Cao Lingzhi, an official with the Hangzhou Public Security Bureau’s Traffic Management Detachment, the system operates on a closed-loop management protocol.

“We have implemented a closed-loop management protocol. For any traffic violations that persist after three verbal reminders from the robot, the incident is automatically logged in our backend system and uploaded to the warning and alert center of our traffic management detachment. From there, our respective squadrons conduct secondary analysis to determine appropriate follow-up actions. After the holiday period, we plan to integrate these robots into our regular duty rotations based on operational needs,” said Cao.

Maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz declined sharply this week, with daily transits falling to just seven vessels on Thursday, half the volume recorded the day before, Belgian shipping analytics firm Kpler said in a social media update on Friday.

Of the seven vessels, four were outbound from the Persian Gulf and three inbound. Three of the ships were identified as having links to Iran, Kpler noted.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Treasury warned Friday that any shippers paying tolls to Iran for passage through the strategic waterway are at risk of punitive sanctions.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) under the department said the United States is aware of “Iranian threats to shipping” and demands for payments to receive safe passage through the strait, and the demands may include several payment options, including fiat currency, digital assets, offsets, informal swaps, or nominally charitable donations made to the Iranian Red Crescent Society.

“OFAC is issuing this alert to warn U.S. and non-U.S. persons about the sanctions risks of making these payments to, or soliciting guarantees from, the Iranian regime for safe passage,” an OFAC advisory said. “These risks exist regardless of payment method.”

The Strait of Hormuz handles roughly 20 percent of the world’s seaborne oil flows. Iran tightened its grip on the vital waterway after Israel and the United States launched their joint strikes on Iran on Feb. 28. The U.S. imposed a naval blockade targeting ships going to and from Iran.