Source:https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2023\/05\/15\/alibaba-autonomous-driving\/<\/a><\/br>
\nAlibaba\u2019s autonomous driving lab to focus more on monetization<\/br>
\n2023-05-15 22:01:46<\/br><\/p>\n

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Alibaba founded Damo Academy in 2017 to carve out a program focused on cutting-edge research that is relatively free of short-term money-making pressure. One of the Academy\u2019s 16 labs<\/a> conducts research on autonomous driving, which just announced a major change today.<\/p>\n

Damo\u2019s autonomous vehicle lab will merge into Cainiao, Alibaba\u2019s global logistics network, and will no longer operate under the basic research institute.<\/p>\n

The news was first reported by the state-affiliated China Securities Journal. A spokesperson at Alibaba confirmed the reshuffle with TechCrunch.<\/p>\n

The structural change signals a greater urgency for Alibaba to monetize its investment in autonomous driving, which is notoriously capital-intensive. Logistics is probably an easy place to start because a self-driving delivery van is ferrying goods rather than humans and its routes are simpler last-mile environments than bustling downtown roads.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Damo has been powering Cainiao\u2019s last-mile delivery needs for six years with its flagship robovan called Little Donkey, ferrying e-commerce, restaurant and grocery orders. As of June 2022, the self-driving, Nuro-like van had surpassed 10 million accumulative deliveries, the company <\/span>said<\/a> at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2021, Alibaba expected<\/a> Little Donkey\u2019s fleet to be delivering one million parcels a day in three years\u2019 time. If the team is on track with the projection, Little Donkeys could be hauling a big chunk of Cainiao\u2019s packages by now. <\/span>To get a sense of the logistics giant\u2019s scale, its peak daily deliveries exceeded 18 million<\/a> during Double 11, China\u2019s annual shopping bonanza equivalent to Black Friday, in 2022.<\/p>\n

Cainiao\u2019s footprint now reaches many countries, following Alibaba\u2019s export e-commerce business. It\u2019s recently been building up a more localized presence outside China, for example, by opening logistics centers in Brazil, Mexico and Chile<\/a>. It won\u2019t be a surprise to see Little Donkeys rolling down the sidewalks of Latin America someday.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Science, Tech, Technology<\/br>
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\nSource:https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2023\/05\/15\/alibaba-autonomous-driving\/<\/a><\/br><\/br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source:https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2023\/05\/15\/alibaba-autonomous-driving\/ Alibaba\u2019s autonomous driving lab to focus more on monetization 2023-05-15 22:01:46 Alibaba founded Damo Academy in 2017 to carve out a program focused on cutting-edge research that is relatively free of short-term money-making pressure. One of the Academy\u2019s 16 labs conducts research on autonomous driving, which just announced a major change today. Damo\u2019s autonomous […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,17,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","category-tech","category-technology"],"yoast_head":"\n