Developed by JD.com, China’s second-largest online retailer by market share, unmanned distribution vehicles will be put into use next month, and are expected to see large-scale use next year, indicating JD’s major steps in distribution mode improvement.

The unmanned distribution vehicles are small, and can plan routes according to traffic conditions. They avoid pedestrians, pets and cars, and, when they arrive at their destinations, send messages to the buyer through JD App and SMS. They have six different sizes of cargo bays. A buyer can get his package from the vehicle by entering the code sent in the message.

According to a JD representative in charge of the project, Chinese cities’ logistics systems rely heavily on people; cargoes sent from a delivery terminal to the buyers especially need a large delivery staff. “The unmanned distribution vehicle can send cargo to office buildings, or convenience stores in residential and villa areas, which is not only convenient for the buyers but also saves labor costs,” said the staffer.

JD plays a leading role in intelligent logistics. The unmanned distribution vehicle was built into JD’s delivery system at the beginning of its design, so that JD’s information platform is perfectly connected with the data about the cargo’s load, delivery and receipt. For example, JD’s mobile store will calculate the customer demand of different residential areas through big data and distribute cargo to the delivery terminals; once buyers place orders, the items are sent by unmanned vehicles.

“At the pilot period of the project, unmanned distribution vehicles are used for temporary distribution tasks. They are expected to be used on a large scale next year. JD hopes to free people from heavy manual labor and upgrade operational efficiency by advanced technology,” said the person in charge of the project.