(Chinese version)

Cainiao, the logistics affiliate of Alibaba Group, released a video showing its self-driving van testing on the roads on April 18th.

Chen Junbo, the head of the algorithm team of Cainiao ET Logistics Laboratory, told TMTpost that Cainiao will start production of driverless vans for commercial use soon and begin to use them largely for last-mile delivery from this year.

According to Chen, Cainiao driverless vans are aimed for the last-mile logistics. Those vans, with the highest speed of 15 km/ hour, will automatically slow down to 10 km/hour when detecting more pedestrians or traffic around, and keep a braking distance between 0.3 and 0.5 metres to prevent impact and ensure safety.

In the released video, it shows that the Cainiao driverless van successfully brakes in an emergency without any crash into pedestrians, running bicycles or moving tricycles.

Earlier in March, it was reported that Cainiao had taken self-driving van tests on the road. Daniel Zhang, Alibaba CEO & Chairman of Cainiao, said at that time that with the development trend of new retailing, Cainiao will speed up developing new methods in logistics and increase investment in forward-looking technology.

-------------------------------

The article is edited by @Yi LIU (Email: yiliu@tmtpost.com;  Mobile/WeChat: +86 13911703028). The Chinese version article is published with authorization from the author @TMTpost, please note source and hyperlink when reproduce.

Follow us now on Twitter @tmtpostenglish, on Medium @TMTpost, and Instagram @tmtpost_english