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our reporter li li reports from hangzhou

"cainiao has expanded its driverless vehicles to public roads and urban delivery, and this year the driverless vehicle scenarios will begin to enter the mass production stage." at the just-concluded 2024 global smart logistics summit, cainiao group ceo wan lin revealed the latest progress of cainiao's driverless vehicles on the spot.

in july this year, it was reported that cainiao's driverless cars were being used on a large scale on open roads. cainiao insiders have confirmed that the driverless cars developed by cainiao have received a batch of orders and are already on the road, delivering packages from express delivery outlets to cainiao stations every day.

"unmanned vehicles and driverless driving have basically crossed the technical threshold in the logistics industry, and the close integration with the entire business and process has reached the stage of large-scale application." wan lin further stated at the scene. it is reported that cainiao l4 level unmanned vehicles have been publicly sold, mainly for commercial use in express delivery outlets, and can realize large-scale delivery of express parcels between express delivery outlets and terminal stations on public roads.

although it has announced that it has entered the public sale stage, cainiao has not yet clearly announced the price of its driverless cars. "the price will be announced soon, and it will be similar to the same type in the industry," li qiang, cto of cainiao group, told a reporter from china business news. in an interview with reporters, li qiang answered a series of questions that the industry is concerned about, including the commercialization progress, differentiation, technical difficulties, and development prospects of cainiao's driverless cars and logistics driverless cars.

china business news:cainiao driverless cars have announced that they have entered the public sale stage. what are the current models on sale and what are the application scenarios of testing?

li qiang:currently, there are mainly two models. the commercialized one is the gx, a low-speed unmanned car for use in relatively closed and semi-closed parks; the other is the unmanned car for use on public roads that cainiao took the initiative to develop last year, which is called gt internally. currently, these two models are mainly being commercialized for the market.

the gx model is currently mainly used in university campuses across china, and we also sell it to customers at home and abroad. as of 2024, cainiao's driverless cars have been running on semi-public roads in colleges and universities in more than 20 provinces across the country, with a total mileage of more than 5 million kilometers and more than 40 million orders delivered, accumulating rich practical experience for driverless delivery on fully public roads.

china business news:there was news before that cainiao driverless cars have been used on a large scale on open roads?

li qiang:many regions are conducting pilot projects, including hangzhou, zhejiang, nanjing, jiangsu, hefei, anhui, shandong, henan, etc. there are both policy and business considerations in conducting pilot projects on the open road.

at present, different provinces and cities have different policies and regulations on driverless cars on the road. for example, generally, 3 cubic meters of cars are allowed on public roads, while some may allow 5 cubic meters of cars on public roads. they can only run on non-motorized lanes or occasionally use motor vehicle lanes, and even running on motor vehicle lanes is no problem. different local governments have different acceptance levels of this matter. cainiao is actively communicating with governments at all levels to strive for more relaxed policies.

in addition, the company is also combining the characteristics of cainiao's unmanned vehicles. what we are doing now is mainly dispatching, supplemented by collection. the scale of the outlets is very important. if a outlet is relatively large and has a large number of deliveries, it will be easier to achieve if the number of packages from a single outlet to a station is sufficient. therefore, we will also look at the customer scale, order scale, collection and dispatch ratio, and comprehensively consider multiple dimensions to focus on these areas.

china business news:price is also a focus of concern to the outside world. behind the price may be the customer's consideration of efficiency indicators. can we truly reduce costs and increase efficiency?

li qiang:the price will be announced soon and will be similar to that of similar products in the industry. regarding customer experience, the first thing we focus on is cost reduction and efficiency improvement. according to our understanding, including customer feedback, we can save 5 cents to 10 cents on each package, which should be possible. however, different customers have different situations, and the difference can be huge.

one issue that cainiao paid great attention to when doing this was how to leverage the supply chain capabilities and vehicle design capabilities of the oems, so that even when the scale is relatively small at the beginning, it can have the supply chain capabilities for tens of thousands of vehicles and keep costs at a relatively low range.

cainiao has a very important concept in making unmanned vehicles: just right. we make a low-speed l4 level unmanned vehicle for logistics, so we don't pile up too many sensors. including the entire autonomous driving kit, the solution is also very cost-effective, and we try our best to minimize the cost of the vehicle and bring greater benefits to customers.

china business news:what is cainiao's prediction about the future commercial scale of unmanned logistics vehicles? are there any specific cases of commercialization now?

li qiang:this is not just a matter of investment. it depends on whether the policies and regulations are ready. it takes time for customers to understand, accept and become familiar with new things. it may not be so fast in the short term. but if it is put into a cycle of three to five years or longer, (it may have a good scale), the scale should be around 200,000 units in three years.

we have an early customer in yuhang, hangzhou, whose outlets bought 25 cainiao 5-cubic-meter vehicles. the unmanned vehicles work from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., not only delivering parcels from outlets to post stations, but also collecting parcels from sellers. its business scenario is a real unmanned vehicle fleet, which realizes the combination of collection and delivery, and the mode of collecting parcels at the same time when delivering. in the delivery part, more than 30% of the parcels are delivered to the station by unmanned vehicles.

china business news:on the eve of the launch of driverless cars, cainiao rushed into the market. as a logistics company that started out as an e-commerce infrastructure company and emphasizes technology, how does cainiao's logistics driverless cars achieve differentiated competition?

li qiang: cainiao's concept for making driverless cars is "just right", focusing on cost-effectiveness. taking "light on maps and heavy on perception" as an example, most l4s are based on high-precision maps. after customers buy a car, they need to collect and make maps, which takes time, money and is not free.

first of all, the cost of collecting and making high-precision maps is very high. because of the high cost and long cycle of collecting and making maps, the "freshness" of maps will be problematic. cainiao's unmanned vehicle cooperates with alibaba's autonavi to truly realize l4 light maps. the map specifications are much lower than those of high-precision maps, but it is a live map that can be refreshed in real time. we hope that the long-term holding cost of the entire vehicle will be low.

secondly, cainiao's driverless cars must ensure sufficient safety and be highly consistent with human drivers. this is not just what we say, but we also look forward to market testing and user reputation.

another point of differentiation that cainiao particularly wants to do is to provide customers with end-to-end solutions based on our deep understanding of the logistics industry. we found that when customers purchase unmanned vehicles, they need end-to-end solutions, such as the route and schedule of the vehicle, and how to achieve time efficiency. we will provide end-to-end solutions suitable for outlets based on our deep experience in logistics.

in addition, details such as whether the door handle is comfortable and labor-saving, and after-sales service are very important dimensions. cainiao will provide customers with a 5-year warranty service for all core components. it is relatively easy to make an unmanned vehicle run, but how to truly make a durable and easy-to-use unmanned vehicle (is the key) will make a difference in the future.

(editor: wu qing, reviewer: li zhenghao, proofreader: wan ling)