Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba Group Holdings is forming an r&d program to create a driverless truck for its logistics business.
The program will be led by Alibaba’s research institute and its logistics unit, Cainiao Network Technology Co., Chen Li, Alibaba’s CTO said Thursday at a conference on smart logistics held in the east China city of Hangzhou.
Chen didn’t disclose additional details on the unmanned trucks the company is developing.
The truck will become Alibaba’s second self-developed unmanned vehicle, following a small, full-electric van.
Since it was launched in 2020, the van, jointly developed by Alibaba’s research institute and logistics unit, has been in operation at 15 universities and some residential areas in major cities such as Hangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing, Chen said at the event.
