Alibaba’s biggest rival unveils cute drone delivery bots

When you hear ecommerce executives talking about drone delivery, they’re usually referring to flying drones. But after several years of test projects, we’re still not much closer to getting our goods delivered via the air. Chinese ecommerce giant JD announced on Thursday that it’s taking a different approach. The company has just begun testing a new unmanned delivery drone that (as you can see) looks more like a small van than a quadcopter.

According to the company, the drones are around a meter in length and have six differently-sized compartments for carrying packages. The drones can select their own routes, drive themselves, and are equipped with smart obstacle avoidance technology. They can even navigate intersections by recognizing light colors. When the arrive at their destination building, the customer inside will be notified via the JD app and they can come out, key in a code to unlock the cargo area, and collect their package.

JD says these are the first such self-driving delivery bots developed in China, and the company “hopes” to put them into large scale commercial use next year.

“The road testing we’re doing now with our delivery cars is just the tip of the iceberg,” said JD’s Shao Jun in the release. “These tests are just the first step.”

JD is also working on a larger drone delivery car, Shao revealed, but no further details are available on that vehicle yet.