Alibaba Explores Making Self-Driving Trucks

Alibaba Group Holding BABA plans to develop self-driving trucks with logistics subsidiary Cainiao, the e-commerce giant's CTO Cheng Li announced at the Global Smart Logistics Summit on Thursday.

What Happened: Alibaba's DAMO Academy and Cainiao have begun their research into autonomous delivery trucks, Li said, as noted by Cainiao in a LinkedIn post.

Alibaba will also invest in research and development to further develop autonomous driving technology to improve customer experience.

“Autonomous driving technology is becoming a core technology in the digital era. We believe that in the future, full chain autonomous logistics distribution can be productized with practical applications, and serve as an essential productivity tool in smart logistics,” Li said.

The company also said it will deploy 1,000 logistics robots known as ‘Xiaomanlv’ across Chinese university campuses and communities over the next year.

Alibaba did not disclose the investment amount or any further details on the self-driving plans.

Dozens of automotive companies and technology firms around the globe have been speeding up their plans on developing self-driving technology which is expected to transform the transportation industry. 

Price Action: Alibaba shares closed 1.16% lower at $213.32 on Thursday.

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Photo Courtesy: Alibaba