Beijing (Gasgoo)- A subsidiary of JD.com has officially applied for trademark registration for its autonomous vehicle efforts, according to Tianyancha.

Late last year, the company has reportedly many patents about autonomous driving technologies. All efforts demonstrate that the Chinese online retailer wants to be a player in this emerging segment.

Photo credit: JD Logistics

As early as in 2016, JD started the research and development of autonomous delivery vehicles, which have gone through several iteration updates. It is said the 4.0 version was released in November, 2019. The latest delivery vehicle version features remote control and can be transformed into self-driving minibus and shuttle.

Last year, JD.com deployed its delivery vehicles in Wuhan. Thanks to L4 autonomous driving technologies and BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, those vehicles can offer contactless delivery to help fighting the virus.

In order to mass produce autonomous delivery vehicles, JD Logistics partnered with King Long Bus and released an autonomous logistics vehicle last September. The DIDO can realize fully unmanned delivery to offer last-kilometer service for communities and campuses. Its sample vehicles have been conducting pilot operation in Suzhou and Changshu.  

But competition in this segment is becoming increasingly intense. Meituan also makes extensive deployment in autonomous delivery vehicles. From 2016 to November, 2020, the company’s autonomous delivery vehicles had run 100,000 kilometers in Shunyi District, Beijing. Xia Huaxia, vice president of Meituan and head of the company’s autonomous driving business, said that his company plans to deploy 1,000 autonomous delivery vehicles in the district.

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