Cainiao unmanned vehicles integrated into the JiuShi RoboVan ecosystem

Author | Huang Yu After nearly 10 years of investment in unmanned vehicle research and development, Cainiao has made a major decision. On January 29, Cainiao Unmanned Vehicles and JiuShi Intelligence jointly announced that both parties have reached an in-depth strategic integration in the unmanned vehicle business. Cainiao has become a shareholder of JiuShi through injecting its own unmanned vehicle business and cash investment, supporting JiuShi in creating the RoboVan supercarrier. In fact, news of Cainiao's shareholding in JiuShi Intelligence had already emerged more than a month ago. Now that the decision is finalized, it marks the official launch of deep collaboration between the two parties in the unmanned vehicle field. According to information from Cainiao, after this business integration, Cainiao will no longer directly produce or sell unmanned vehicles, but will continue to rely on its logistics scenarios and ecological advantages to expand the application of unmanned vehicles in the logistics industry. JiuShi Intelligence will operate with two brands. The "Cainiao Unmanned Vehicle" brand will be authorized by Cainiao for JiuShi to use and will maintain its identity as an Alibaba investment-incubated eco-enterprise. It is worth noting that, according to Cainiao representatives, Cainiao’s unmanned vehicle management and technical leaders will also join JiuShi Intelligence, deeply participating in future strategic planning and operations management. It is understood that in future market layouts, JiuShi Intelligence and "Cainiao Unmanned Vehicle" will form clearly differentiated brand positions: JiuShi Intelligence will continue to focus on self-developed full-stack autonomous driving technologies, providing intelligent mobility solutions for all scenarios; "Cainiao Unmanned Vehicle," relying on its logistics technology genes, will focus on specific scenarios and key clients, providing deep intelligent supply chain services based on RoboVan. Meanwhile, products from both brands will, through technology sharing, operational collaboration, and resource integration, jointly build a future-oriented RoboVan super-ecosystem. The intention of both parties is clear—to achieve a win-win development in different market dimensions through such integration. Cainiao’s unmanned vehicle business made breakthrough progress in 2024, with operational scenarios expanding from closed and semi-closed parks/roads to open roads based on last-mile delivery, and its L4-level unmanned vehicle GT was officially put on sale and entered mass production. Since last year, Cainiao unmanned vehicles have continually launched new models, successively releasing the upgraded GT Pro and the new affordable GT-Lite model, developing lightweight mapping functions, and constantly lowering the threshold for unmanned vehicle use; its unmanned vehicles have already been deployed in various scenarios such as heavy-load, short-distance, medium-long distance, cold chain delivery, and traffic police patrolling. Against this backdrop, Cainiao unmanned vehicles have also won a considerable number of commercial orders, having reached cooperation with companies such as Shentong, Inspur Intelligent Terminals, and Zhongying Pharmaceuticals in July alone last year. According to information from Wallstreetcn, since its establishment, Cainiao has hoped to use data and technology to promote the digital upgrade of the entire logistics industry; thus, for Cainiao, unmanned vehicles are an important technology and product to drive changes and upgrades in the logistics sector. In addition, Cainiao itself is also a comprehensive logistics company, hoping to further enhance its overall competitiveness by making greater use of unmanned vehicles in logistics scenarios. Unlike Cainiao, unmanned logistics vehicles are JiuShi Intelligence’s core business; entering the L4 RoboVan (medium and large unmanned vans) sector as soon as the company was founded in 2021. By the end of 2025, JiuShi Intelligence will have more than 16,000 unmanned vehicles on the roads, with cumulative operational mileage surpassing 75 million kilometers, and application scenarios covering more than 300 prefecture-level cities nationwide. According to data disclosed by JiuShi Intelligence last October, its market share in complete RoboVan vehicle sales has exceeded 76%. Additionally, JiuShi Intelligence has also gone global; in Singapore, it became the first Chinese company to receive an unmanned logistics vehicle license, and has established partnerships with the largest local chain supermarket FairPrice and Singapore Post to provide local delivery services; in the Middle East, JiuShi Intelligence has set up a joint venture with Emirates Post to serve postal logistics there. Regarding the integration with Cainiao Unmanned Vehicles, JiuShi Intelligence CEO Kong Qi said that it is a key milestone for the autonomous driving industry to move from "point breakthroughs" to "system integration," and will inject a broader global vision into the company. At present, multiple companies have launched unmanned logistics vehicle products, including logistics enterprises like Cainiao, Meituan, and JD Logistics, as well as startups such as JiuShi Intelligence, Neolithic, and White Rhino. The average price of mainstream logistics unmanned vehicles is 50,000 yuan, with the main business model being vehicle sales plus FSD (Full Self Driving) service fees. Guojin Securities analysts pointed out that the demand for unmanned logistics vehicles is promising, helping express/logistics companies reduce costs and increase efficiency. They are now widely used in express delivery, food delivery, B2C retail, convenience stores, and fresh home delivery. They can replace city distribution market capacity, which itself is a trillion-level market. With technological breakthroughs, product price cuts, road rights opening, and policy support, unmanned logistics vehicles are entering a period of large-scale commercial application; 2025 is seen as the "explosive year" for the scale commercialization of unmanned logistics vehicles. However, the application of unmanned vehicles is still in its early stage, and it is not easy for participating companies to ultimately succeed in this race track. Whether the integration between Cainiao and JiuShi Intelligence will produce the effect of “1+1>2” remains to be seen. Risk Warning and Disclaimer The market carries risks, and investment needs caution. This article does not constitute individual investment advice, nor does it take into account the particular investment objectives, financial situation, or needs of individual users. Users should consider whether any opinions, views, or conclusions in this article are suitable for their particular circumstances. 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