Topic Reading-Vol.2248-6/7/2018

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Topic Reading-Vol.2248-6/7/2018

英語で世界を知ろう！Topic Reading

2018/06/07 Topic Reading-Vol.2248-6/7/2018

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Alibaba reveals new driverless delivery bot

Another high-tech surprise by China’s retail giant, Alibaba. A driverless delivery vehicle. Despite the world’s largest population, China has been experiencing a shortage of workforce in manufacturing and service sectors due to rising labor costs. To cope with the challenge, delivering robots and order-and-payment app in restaurants, as well as delivery drones, have already been part of Alibaba’s ventures. Now, the e-retail innovator has introduced a new automated multi-functional vehicle that could be used for delivery and coffee vendor.

The key technology being used in this driverless delivery bot is solid state Lidar, the laser sensors to create a 3-D map of the surroundings in real time. It is an essential part of the technology used for autonomous driving. It works much like radar, but it emits pulses of infrared light instead of radio waves. Once the sensor identifies objects, the car’s Ai-powered computer can predict how they will behave and controls the vehicles accordingly. Unlike conventional lidars that spin continuously on top of the car roof, this Alibaba-version lidar is solid state, which makes the vehicle looks less odd on the street despite the unattractive appearance.

Many break-through ideas and innovations come from Silicon Valley and SF Bay Area in the U.S. But Hangzhou, where Alibaba headquartered, and Shenzhen, where Tencent and many high-tech ventures are located, in China seem to be driving businesses much faster these days.

Enjoy reading and think how many these auto-delivering bots are running on the streets on and after this year’s Single’s-day Sales on November 11th across China.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44330891

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