Alibaba launches logistics robot for last-mile deliveries to lower costs and as pandemic pushes automation

Alibaba Cloud unveiled its autonomous logistics robot Xiaomanlv for last-mile deliveries at its annual Apsara conference on Sept 17, 2020. — Handout

China’s biggest e-commerce player Alibaba Group Holding has unveiled an autonomous logistics robot aimed at bringing down the cost of last-mile deliveries and in line with a broader push towards automated deliveries by e-commerce companies amid the pandemic.

Xiaomanlv, which translates into English roughly as ‘little competent donkey’, can deliver as many as 500 packages a day to one designated community or campus carrying 50 packages at a time. It can also cover 100km on a single charge, according to a statement on Thursday by Alibaba at its annual Apsara cloud computing event.