Driverless Delivery Vans Are Here in China 无人物流车来了
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Forget drones. The future of deliveries may be robo-vans.
A Chinese startup called Neolix kicked off mass production of its self-driving delivery vehicles Friday -- saying it’s the first company globally to do so -- and has lined up giants such as JD.Com Inc. and Huawei Technologies Co. as customers. Neolix expects to deliver a thousand of the vehicles, which resemble tiny vans, within the first year as it broadens out.
The implications are potentially huge: Billionaire Jack Ma predicts there will be 1 billion deliveries a day in China within a decade and the commercialization of the technology could provide lessons for autonomous vehicles carrying passengers. Neolix isn’t alone in this space as Silicon Valley’s Nuro raised almost a billion dollars this year and is starting to deliver groceries in Arizona.
Yu Enyuan, founder of Neolix, center.
Yu has been testing more than a hundred of the vehicles in enclosed areas such as Chinese campuses. The vehicles are priced similar to a regular car -- a Neolix van costs about $30,000.
The entrepreneur, who was previously and inventor of smart tools for the logistics industry, said delivery of goods is just the start. Down the road, he envisages fleets of robo-vans providing everything from 24/7 mobile vending to help with running errands.
While humans are trying to keep up and becoming more efficient with inventions such as smart lockers, there’s no doubt robots are becoming an increasing threat. With robo-vans, there’s no need for a messenger who will need a salary, and robo-vehicles are bound to have fewer accidents than humans.
Beverages inside a Neolix vending machine vehicle.
One limitation: either a human needs to be present to accept the package, or the vehicle has to leave the parcel at a prearranged accessible location such as a ground-floor locker. One solution proposed by Ford Motor Co. is a small robot that walks on two legs to bring the parcel from the vehicle to the doorstep.
While self-driving cars that carry passengers still face significant regulatory obstacles, Yu says the path has been easier for unmanned delivery vehicles. The company’s vans are operating in the new Xiongan economic zone about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Beijing, as well as in limited areas of the capital and the city of Changzhou.
无人物流车来了
不要想无人机了，未来的快递服务可能是用机器人货车来实现。
一家名为Neolix（新石器）的中国初创公司开始大规模生产无人物流车，声称是全球第一家这样做的企业，已经有京东和华为等国内巨头成为其客户。
新石器预计，随着业务的扩大，在第一年里将交付1000辆类似微型货车的车辆。
不过，新石器并不是唯一一家这样做的公司。
在美国，硅谷的Nuro去年12月与连锁超市克罗格合作，在亚利桑那州斯科茨代尔推出了无人物流车送货服务，并在今年筹集了近10亿美元资金。
除此之外，还有企业于凤凰城和达拉斯之间开展大型自动驾驶卡车运送邮件的业务。
随着智能储物柜等发明的出现，人类正努力跟上潮流，提高效率，但毫无疑问，机器人正成为越来越大的威胁。
如今，有了自动化的送货车，就不需要雇用快递员，而且无人车在设计之初就是要避免发生事故，至少可以说注定会比人类少。
但也有局限。那就是需要有人在场才能接收包裹。或者，车辆必须将包裹放在预先安排好的访问位置，比如一楼的储物柜。
新石器在常州工厂的生产线可以达到年生产能力超过30000辆汽车的水平。公司计划在销量上升后与合作伙伴在海外设厂，正在与瑞士、日本和美国等国的潜在客户进行谈判，目标是在五年内实现10万辆的年销量。
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