(JW Insights) May 16 -- Damo Academy(达摩院), the research arm of Chinese tech giant Alibaba, announced on May 15 that its autonomous driving business will be incorporated into Cainiao Network(菜鸟网络), Alibaba's logistics unit, reported China Daily on May 15.

Damo Academy, which was launched in late 2017, has rolled out its Xiaomanlv(小蛮驴) 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, eastern China's 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 in March that 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, said the China Daily report.

(Chen HX)