Editor | Zhao

At the World Artificial Intelligence Conference, Meituan showed the Meituan UAV to the outside world. It is said that more than 90% of its core systems are self-developed by Meituan, unlike Meituan's unmanned delivery vehicles, which cooperate with startups.

A member of the Meituan UAV team told AI Finance and Economics that Meituan UAV has been put into operation in Shenzhen, Jinshan District of Shanghai and parts of Beijing. However, due to the ban on flying within the Sixth Ring Road in Beijing, Meituan UAV is currently mainly operated in Shenzhen, specializing in low-altitude logistics, with a delivery time of 3 kilometers, 15 minutes. According to public information, Meituan UAV has completed 200,000 flight tests and delivered more than 2,500 real orders.

Compared with unmanned vehicles, unmanned vehicles can transport a large number of goods at a time, but they can only transport one order, but the speed is faster. It is more suitable for sending urgent or high-value orders, such as medicines. Some people in the US Mission said that the current distribution model is still being explored. At present, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) need distributors to put merchants' goods into the cargo boxes of UAVs, and then deliver them to their destinations one by one, and then put them into automatic receiving storage boxes, or deliver them to your door.

AI Finance and Economics learned that Meituan began to independently develop drones on 20 17, and there are currently 300 people engaged in drone business. Mao Yinian, vice president of Meituan and head of UAV business, said that the reason for choosing self-research is that UAVs are designed for special scenes, and there are no suitable products on the market at present. Another member of the US delegation told AI Finance and Economics that the technology of drones is simpler than unmanned vehicles and does not involve chassis, so they chose self-research.

The special feature of the distribution drone is that it needs to land in the city. Meituan's drones can choose their own landing sites to prevent accidents. To this end, drones are equipped with AI algorithms, environmental awareness and autonomous planning systems, similar to unmanned vehicles. However, due to the low computing power of UAV chips, more artificial intelligence optimization work is needed. AI Finance understands that it has six sets of propellers, six motors and six power systems to ensure that some equipment can land safely in case of failure. Its core navigation system was also designed by Meituan.

In recent years, technology giants are deploying unmanned distribution. Both JD.COM and Meituan have released drones and low-speed unmanned delivery vehicles. In addition to the low-speed unmanned delivery vehicle "Little Man Donkey", Ali is even developing self-driving trucks.

Some people from the US delegation told AI Finance and Economics that each family seems to be "showing their magical powers". In fact, the demand is already very urgent, and the labor cost of distribution is also rising rapidly.

However, under the urgent demand, unmanned distribution still faces many difficulties. The most important thing is the cost. Some people familiar with drone distribution told AI Finance that only unmanned vehicles are about to enter the practical stage, but it is still very early. As for drones, large-scale landing is not enough.

An unmanned vehicle enterprise told AI Finance and Economics that an unmanned vehicle purchased by a giant cost 450,000 yuan. Usually, the cost of unmanned distribution is less than the labor cost. If the annual salary of each takeaway brother is 65,438+10,000 yuan, excluding infrastructure and operating expenses, it will take four years to cover the hardware cost.

Meituan drones also admit that drones are farther distributed than unmanned vehicles. According to AI Finance & Economics, the cost of lockers that can be opened by drones exceeds 65,438+10,000 yuan. Due to the small number of orders, it is not yet possible to estimate the hardware cost shared by each order. In addition, Meituan also plans to renovate some commercial areas in the future, and can directly transport cargo containers from the building to the roof for use by drones. This will also be a big project.

But businesses are still actively exploring. Mao publicly stated one year that Meituan hoped to realize the commercial scale of drones within 5- 10 years.

This article was originally produced by Caijing Tianxia Weekly. Please do not reprint in any channel or platform without permission. Offenders will be prosecuted.