JD com : Upgrades Autonomous Delivery Services for 618 Grand Promotion

by Yuchuan Wang

JD Logistics announced on Jun. 10 that it will upgrade the service of itsautonomous delivery vehiclesduring this year's 618 Grand Promotion to satisfy consumers' demands whenever and wherever.

At the same time, 30 new Level-4 autonomous vehicles are being put into use in Changshu, Jiangsu province from today. Last October, JD announced plans to help Changshu transform itself into a smart delivery city. During this 618 sales promotion, daily orders fulfilled in Changshu have been 1.5 times that of last year.

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'The manufacturing for these vehicles includes over 50 processes and over 140 checks for quality to ensure its stability,' said Dr. Qi Kong, chief scientist and head of JD's autonomous driving technology. 'It marks an important step for the scalable application of JD's autonomous delivery vehicles.'

The upgrade covers three aspects:

JD autonomous vehicles will for the first time support 'scheduled delivery,' in which customers can designate times for the vehicle to come to their doorsteps. By transforming the vehicles into 'mobile stations,' it will provide even more convenient last-mile delivery service to customers.

Besides last-mile, the vehicles will be utilized to transfer goods among different JD delivery stations, to facilitate the parcel surge during the 618 sales period or customers changing their addresses.

JD's autonomous delivery vehicles will also be applied in more on-demand delivery scenarios. SEVEN FRESH supermarkets in Beijing are already adopting the robots to help deliver fresh produce orders within 3-kilometer radius.

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