Alibaba Group Xiaomanlv delivery robots hit Chinese universities
Alibaba Group is this month rolling out its Xiaomanlv logistics robots to 15 universities in China.
Students can set a pick-up time to get deliveries to their dorms.
Xiaomanlv, which means little donkey, made its debut last year, tapping the artificial intelligence and autonomous driving technology of Alibaba’s research and innovation institute DAMO Academy.
In October, 22 logistics robots led by Xiaomanlv hit the Zijingang campus of Zhejiang University for Double 11.
During the event, Alibaba provided a robot-only delivery service at the university, involving more than 30,000 packages.
Wang Gang, the Head of DAMO Academy’s auto-driving lab, said: “Xiaomanlv is the first logistics robot in the industry that can achieve mass production.”
“DAMO Academy hopes to use technical means to improve the end delivery efficiency, meet mass social needs, and let robots take over end logistics.”
He added that Xiaomanlv would appear in large numbers this year.
Pinduoduo passes Alibaba
Earlier this week, Colin Huang, the founder of Chinese e-commerce group Pinduoduo, stepped down as Chair to explore “new, long-term opportunities”.
The announcement came as Pinduoduo overtook Alibaba by annual shopper count for the first time, with 788 million people buying on its platform in the past year, compared to 779 million for Alibaba.
