JD.com rolls out fleet of autonomous delivery vans as online shopping giants embrace unmanned operations

The roll out in Changshu city in Jiangsu province began in August after the company tested its Level-4 autonomous driving technology in Wuhan earlier this year. However, analysts say it could take more than 10 years to achieve large-scale use because the technology is expensive and firms need to figure out how to make money. — SCMP

JD.com, China’s No 2 e-commerce player, will deploy 100 autonomous delivery vehicles on public roads in a Chinese city by the end of the year as the country’s online shopping giants push for more unmanned deliveries amid the pandemic.

“We will continue to increase the investment in logistics technology, and we will also make logistics technologies available to the general public, facilitating social infrastructure upgrades,” Zhenhui Wang, chief executive of JD Logistics, said in a statement on Thursday.