Dada Ramps Up Expansion of Autonomous Delivery in Partnership with JD

Dada Group, China’s local on-demand delivery and retail platform, announced Tuesday that it is set to advance an autonomous delivery operation open system to normalize the scalable use of unmanned delivery vehicles.

Teaming up with JD Logistics and autonomous delivery vehicle developer White Rhino, Dada Group will jointly establish the autonomous delivery ecosystem in the supermarket scenario.

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Dada Now, Dada’s on-demand delivery platform, has leveraged its software and technologies to develop the autonomous delivery operation system for unmanned delivery vehicles in supermarkets. The system has been applied by SEVEN FRESH and Yonghui Superstores’ unmanned vehicles to fulfil nearly 5,000 orders with driving mileage over 10,000 kilometres.

According to the report “China’s On-demand Retail Industry 2021” conducted by iResearch this June, the demand for online grocery delivery service is growing fast in China. 

Consumers are increasingly embracing on-demand consumption, with the most purchased categories including fruits and vegetables, dairy products, meat, and eggs. This rapid growth in on-demand delivery, rising labour costs and a shortage of couriers has at times led to difficulty in fulfilling orders quickly for consumers. The unmanned delivery vehicles provide a viable alternative to address these challenges.

Compared with traditional delivery, unmanned vehicles feature lower delivery cost, larger carrying capacity, stronger stability, and higher safety, for one-hour delivery. And the vehicles support “scheduled delivery,” in which customers can designate times for the vehicle to come to their neighbourhoods. The unmanned vehicles can be deployed in extreme weather conditions, as well as peak and out-of-business hours to autonomously complete delivery missions when the availability of delivery riders is limited.

The on-demand delivery industry has become more open and collaborative as an ecosystem. Dada aims to link its partners and scale up the R&D of the software and infrastructure for autonomous delivery services as part of its latest effort to accelerate the transition to the era of smart delivery. To expand its unmanned delivery network, Dada Now together with JD Logistics and White Rhino, plans to bring unmanned delivery to the daily lives of China’s urbanites. 

“The combination of Dada’s system for autonomous delivery and our partners’ intelligent delivery vehicles will enable sweeping delivery cost reductions, make our roads safer, lower carbon emissions, and bring greater value to retailers and business partners,” said Jun Yang, Co-Founder, Director and CTO of Dada Group.

In June 2020, Dada Group began trading on the Nasdaq Global Market, under the ticker symbol “DADA”.