On-demand retail and delivery platform Dada launches autonomous delivery service...

On-demand retail and delivery platform Dada launches autonomous delivery service for supermarket

On-demand retail and delivery platform Dada launches autonomous delivery service for supermarket

5 hours ago

Shanghai based on-demand retail and delivery platform Dada Group, has launched a platform for its autonomous delivery service, partnering with JD logistics and autonomous delivery vehicle developer White Rhino to collaborate on building the autonomous delivery ecosystem for supermarket and shopping malls.

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Dada’s autonomous delivery service so far has been adopted by JD’s omnichannel supermarket brand Seven Fresh and Tencent-backed Yonghui Supermarket to deliver on-demand order to more than 10 neighborhoods in Beijing and Shanghai.

The vehicle can still manage delivering works in bad weather conditions when human couriers have low work-efficiency.

The platforms also features function including order management, automatic vehicle dispatching, delivery route planning, and human-machine interaction.

In June,2020, Dada raised USD320 million in its IPO on Nasdaq, selling 20 million American Depository Shares (ADS) at USD16 per share.

Backed by JD and Walmart, Dada group saw exponential growth during the Covid-19 outbreak in China as its 2020 Q1 revenue jumped 108.9% year-on-year to CNY1.1 billion.

JD Group is the largest shareholder with a 47.4 per cent stake in Dada. In 2016, JD merged its JD Daojia unit with Dada Nexus and provided USD200 million in cash to Dada Nexus, receiving about 47% of the company’s equity.

Sequoia Capital China, Walmart, and DST Global have equity interests of 10.5 per cent, 9.9 per cent, and 8.7 per cent, respectively.

Walmart’s tie with Dada Nexus can be tracked back to June 2016 when Walmart made its strategic investment of USD50 million into Dada Nexus, Walmart further invested USD320 million in Dada in October 2018.

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Most recently, Chinese tech firms have accelerated the development unmanned delivery service with a goal to reduce personnel costs and enhance efficiency.

During the pandemic outbreak, JD.com’s logistics had used Level 4 autonomous delivery robots to deliver the batchs of medical supplies to hospitals in Wuhan. The company then deployed autonomous delivery cars on public roads in parts of Changshu city in China’s Jiangsu province later the year.

Alibaba also tested autonomous logistics robots at the Zhejiang University campus in Hangzhou, in efforts to bring down the logistic costs.

In May, 2021, E-commerce platform JD.com, on-demand service platform Meituan, and Li Auto-backed autonomous driving start-up Neolix have been granted permits to test their unmanned delivery vehicles on designated public roads at Beijing Econmic-Technological Development Area commonly known as Beijing’s Yizhuang new town.

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