At the 2021 Global Smart Logistics Summit, Alibaba Chief Technology Officer and Cainiao Chief Technology Officer Cheng Li announced that in the coming year, Cainiao will invest 1000 logistics unmanned cars "Xiaoman donkeys" into campuses and communities. In the future, Alibaba will continue to invest in technology to enhance customer experience in the field of self-driving.
At the summit, representatives from Zhejiang University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Nankai University and other universities attended and issued "admission notices" to the unmanned car "Xiaoman Donkey". In the future, more consumers will use the unmanned vehicle delivery service of the rookie post station. "this is by far the largest logistics unmanned vehicle in China to be put into operation." Cheng Li said that a new batch of more than 20 colleges and universities across the country have also issued invitations to the "Xiaoman Donkey" one after another, and the logistics unmanned car has become a major member of the intelligent campus.
As of June 1, the volume of express delivery in China that year had exceeded 40 billion, close to the level for the whole year of 2017. The rapid growth of digital commerce brings convenience to consumers and business growth, at the same time, how to send hundreds of millions of parcels to every consumer every day has become the biggest difficulty.
Cainiao and Alibaba Dama House have joined hands in layout for many years. Through the innovation of self-driving technology such as intelligent simulation and embedded system, and the innovation of terminal infrastructure, Cainiao has successfully built a logistics unmanned vehicle "Xiaoman Donkey" which connects seamlessly with Cainiao Post Station. it provides an overall solution of automatic distribution with high efficiency, excellent experience and reasonable cost for end distribution.
At present, Xiaoman Donkey has successfully operated in 15 universities, serving 300000 teachers and students, and a single machine can deliver up to 500 parcels a day. During Tmall's double Day holiday in 2020, 22 Xiaoman donkeys from Zhejiang University shuttled to and from 27 dormitory buildings in Zhejiang University, delivering 50, 000 parcels, saving teachers and students 17000 hours of pick-up time.
At the rookie post station in Cangyi Dongyuan, a residential area in Hangzhou, two "Xiaoman donkeys" can deliver 300-400 parcels a day, and the service experience is comparable to manual delivery, meeting the personalized pickup needs of consumers.
As the representative work of Alibaba's autopilot technology, behind the production and practicality of Xiaoman Donkey, there are not only cutting-edge autopilot technology innovation, but also lean operation optimization and experience innovation based on a large number of front-line operation practices of rookie post stations. After more than half a year of full verification, "Xiaoman Donkey" has taken the lead in having the conditions for large-scale operation at the end.
Cheng Li said that Alibaba Dama House and Cainiao have launched the definition and research of unmanned logistics trucks on open roads. "self-driving technology is becoming a core technology in the digital age, and we believe that the future full-link unmanned logistics distribution can also be product-oriented and practical, and become an important production tool of digital logistics."