Damo Academy was formed in 2017 by Alibaba to carve out a program focusing on cutting-edge research that is generally free of short-term profit pressure. One of the Academy's 16 laboratories handles research on autonomous driving, which has just announced a significant development.
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Damo's autonomous vehicle lab will be absorbed by Cainiao, Alibaba's global logistics network, and will no longer be managed by the basic research institute.
The China Securities Journal, a state-affiliated publication, broke the story first. A spokesman for Alibaba confirmed the reorganization.
The structural shift indicates a greater urgency for Alibaba to monetize its capital-intensive investment in autonomous driving. Logistics is a smart place to start since a self-driving delivery van transports items rather than people, and its routes are easier in last-mile conditions than on busy urban streets.
Damo has been fueling Cainiao's last-mile delivery needs with its flagship Donovan, Little Donkey, for six years, ferrying e-commerce, restaurant, and supermarket deliveries. The self-driving, Nuro-like van has topped 10 million cumulative deliveries as of June 2022, according to the business at the time.
Little Donkey's fleet was projected to deliver one million packages per day in three years by 2021, according to Alibaba. If the team's projections are correct, Little Donkeys may be transporting a significant portion of Cainiao's parcels by now. To give you an idea of the logistics behemoth's size, on Double 11, China's annual shopping spree akin to Black Friday, in 2022, its top daily deliveries hit 18 million.
Cainiao's footprint has expanded to several nations because of Alibaba's export e-commerce operation. It has lately expanded its footprint outside of China, for example, by creating logistics hubs in Brazil, Mexico, and Chile. It won't be surprising to see Little Donkeys sliding along Latin American sidewalks eventually.
source(techcrunch)
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The China Securities Journal, a state-affiliated publication, broke the story first. A spokesman for Alibaba confirmed the reorganization.
The structural shift indicates a greater urgency for Alibaba to monetize its capital-intensive investment in autonomous driving. Logistics is a smart place to start since a self-driving delivery van transports items rather than people, and its routes are easier in last-mile conditions than on busy urban streets.
Damo has been fueling Cainiao's last-mile delivery needs with its flagship Donovan, Little Donkey, for six years, ferrying e-commerce, restaurant, and supermarket deliveries. The self-driving, Nuro-like van has topped 10 million cumulative deliveries as of June 2022, according to the business at the time.
Little Donkey's fleet was projected to deliver one million packages per day in three years by 2021, according to Alibaba. If the team's projections are correct, Little Donkeys may be transporting a significant portion of Cainiao's parcels by now. To give you an idea of the logistics behemoth's size, on Double 11, China's annual shopping spree akin to Black Friday, in 2022, its top daily deliveries hit 18 million.
Cainiao's footprint has expanded to several nations because of Alibaba's export e-commerce operation. It has lately expanded its footprint outside of China, for example, by creating logistics hubs in Brazil, Mexico, and Chile. It won't be surprising to see Little Donkeys sliding along Latin American sidewalks eventually.
source(techcrunch)
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