A lot of innovation is coming out of China and these developments have a global effect. Chinese e-commerce giant, Jingdong (JD) has collaborated with SAIC Maxus and Dongfeng Motor Corporation to produce China’s first automated unmanned delivery vans. Two models of these vans have been developed and its source of power is electricity.
This kind of development has been in Jingdong’s books for a very long time. At some point, the e-retail giant used drones to convey online acquisitions to country customers in the Jiangsu province. On June 18, during the shopping festival, Jingdong also used robots and driverless cars for distribution of items. Perhaps, the company is much concerned about the cost of item deliveries knowing that most items become attractive when they have the tag “FREE DELIVERY”.
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Jingdong intends to use these unmanned vans to convey products to every delivery point across China. SAIC Maxus developed its model with the ability to plan routes via its radar system, multiple sensors, and GPS. It can detect obstructions 150m away and this van seems to be the future of item delivery.
Although testing of these vans by the companies were successful, they are not ready for full-time usage because it has to pass professional tests which will probably concentrate on automatic route planning, overtaking, obstacle avoidance, and self-parking functions. It also needs to be licensed before it can be fully utilized.