Alibaba's logistics division to absorb self-driving business

Chinese tech heavyweight Alibaba Group's research arm Damo Academy announced on Monday its autonomous driving business will be incorporated into Cainiao Network, the company's logistics unit.

Damo Academy, a research institute Alibaba launched in late 2017, has rolled out its Xiaomanlv unmanned delivery vehicles to address last-mile delivery challenges.

These vehicles have L4 self-driving capability and automatically calculate optimal routes and avoid obstacles when delivering parcels. L4 autonomy means the car can drive by itself in most conditions without a human backup driver. 

Alibaba received approval to test its Level 4 self-driving trucks last year in Deqing county, Zhejiang province. However, Wang Gang and Chen Junbo, who were in charge of Damo Academy's autonomous driving business, have left the company.

Alibaba announced on in March it would split its business into six main units, with each separate business having the flexibility to raise outside capital and seek its own initial public offering, the most significant organizational change to the company in its 24-year history.

The six units will cover cloud intelligence, Taobao Tmall commerce, local services, Cainiao smart logistics, global digital commerce and digital media and entertainment.