HANGZHOU, CHINA — Alibaba will soon sell cars through gigantic vending machines, and give their users the opportunity to try before they buy.
According to CNET, customers use Alibaba's Taobao mobile app to scan a car they want to test, and are asked by the system to pick a color, enter basic information, and take a selfie.
At the automated car vending machine, facial recognition matches the customer with their car order, which is then dispatched from storage.
Customers are given three days to test-drive the vehicle, after which they can buy directly through the app, or arrange to test drive a different model.
The company is planning to open two facilities in January 2018, one in Shanghai and another in Nanjing.
The service is limited to users who have a sesame credit score of at least 700, and belong to the higher tiers of the Alibaba 88 membership program.
To curb abuses, users can only test a model once, with no more than five test drives within the first two months of signing up.