JD.com invests in drones and driverless trucks 29 September 2017

JD.com Inc. has established partnerships with automotive manufacturers SAIC Maxus Automotive and Dongfeng Motor Corp. to research the use of autonomous vans in its logistics operations. The move comes shortly after the Company established a partnership with Nvidia Corp. to jointly develop logistics drones.

JD.com’s joint vehicle research projects involve two models of autonomous light electric vans, one produced by SAIC Maxus and the other by Dongfeng, trialling the delivery of goods from JD.com’s distribution centres to delivery stations.

SAIC Maxus’ electric van can sense obstacles 150 meters away and plans its route by leveraging its radar and positioning systems. To date the van has conducted successful tests of its automatic route planning, automatic overtaking, automatic obstacle avoidance and self-parking functions. The trials are conducted with drivers in the car in case of emergencies to ensure road safety.

JD.com aims to deploy unmanned delivery vehicles, including drones, autonomous driving vans and unmanned warehouses, to better manage its logistics operations. It is anticipated that autonomous driving vans will be used to manage bulk deliveries to office buildings and residential areas in cities to increase efficiency in urban areas.

In June of this year, the Company began testing last-mile delivery via autonomous delivery robots on university campuses. Students at Renmin University and Tsinghua University and other schools, who place orders on JD.com can pick up their items from autonomous robots at designated destinations across campus, such as cafeterias or dormitories. By using a unique passcode, JD users can open the delivery robot’s secure locker to retrieve their parcels.