Source: Visual China

The autonomous driving lab of Alibaba Academy for Discovery, Adventure, Momentum and Outlook, also known as DAMO Academy, will be merged into Cainiao, a logistic arm of Alibaba, and the global research institute will not retain any business or team involved in self driving. The reshuffle suggests all the work on driverless delivery, either on the basis of the robovan called Little Donkey, or the unmanned self-driving truck dubbed Big Donkey, will focus on the practical demand for Cainiao, since the autonomous driving becomes a technology team under Cainiao, instead of a program of DAMO Acadey dedicated to cutting-edge technologies.

Following the merger, the self driving lab would report to Li Qiang, the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Cainiao. Li has initially worked at Alibaba’s e-commerce business and doesn’t have professional background about autonomous driving. Prior to the shakeup, Chen Junbo, head of the lab was confirmed to resign in March. Chen, graduated from the College of Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang University, was said to be recognized as the first person who wanted to work on autonomous driving inside Alibaba. The autonomous driving lab has been running without a real leader since Chen left the company to build a cleaning robot venture with Gu Zulin, former CEO at Alibaba Robotics.

Not all the members of the lab will be transferred to the Cainiao’s tech team, and about 200 people, accounting for 70% of workforce, will be laid off, Chinese digital news media outlet Jiemian learned on Monday. Alibaba was said to offer two severance packages: N+1+1 and N+1. The former package provides employees who are set to leave on Friday an average salary of the past 12 months and the monthly salary base as well as a vacation pay for compensation. The latter package is designed for staff to get laid off next month, when they will not receive the vacation pay, but obtain more buffer time to find an internal transfer or new jobs. In addition, DAMO Academy was said to provide internal transfer opportunities for fresh graduates in the lab.

The news about cutting 70% of staff at the lab is untrue, Alibaba Cloud later Monday responded. Some of employees working for the autonomous driving lab under Aliababa DAMO Academy will be transferred to Cainiao, and a considerable number of other lab members will be moved to different businesses of Alibaba, according to the cloud unit.

A key reason that Cainiao could not accept the whole team of the lab is that what the logistic unit showed willingness to invest in the self-driving is limited, an insider at the Alibaba told Jiemian. “Cainiao would like to spend some money on Little Donkey, which was involved with the company’s certain business, while it is unwilling to invest in Big Donkey, which requires too many inputs, and neither are other (Alibaba’s) businesses,” the insider said. The restructure is part of aftershock for Alibaba’s biggest overhaul in its 24-year history, as the company became more sensitive and cautious for resource allocation and business efficiency, especially for those high asset-intensive businesses like the self driving, the people noted.

Alibaba announced in late March that it would split into six business groups, including Cloud Intelligence Group, Taobao Tmall Commerce Group, Local Services Group, Cainiao Smart Logistics, Global Digital Commerce Group, Digital Media and Entertainment Group. With financial independence, each business group is fully responsible for its performance and could seek separate IPOs. Cainiao was reported in the end of March to have started preparation for its Hong Kong IPO, which seems to be the first in Alibaba’s six units to be a listed company. With the current valuation at more than US$20 billion, Cainiao could go public as early as end of the year, according to the report. Cainiao didn’t have any clear plan or timetable about IPO, the company later responded.

本文內(nèi)容來源:鈦媒體英文站

本文系作者 Li_Dan 授權(quán)鈦媒體發(fā)表,并經(jīng)鈦媒體編輯,轉(zhuǎn)載請注明出處、作者和本文鏈接
本內(nèi)容來源于鈦媒體鈦度號,文章內(nèi)容僅供參考、交流、學(xué)習(xí),不構(gòu)成投資建議。
想和千萬鈦媒體用戶分享你的新奇觀點和發(fā)現(xiàn),點擊這里投稿 。創(chuàng)業(yè)或融資尋求報道,點擊這里。

敬原創(chuàng),有鈦度,得贊賞

贊賞支持
發(fā)表評論
0 / 300

根據(jù)《網(wǎng)絡(luò)安全法》實名制要求,請綁定手機號后發(fā)表評論

登錄后輸入評論內(nèi)容

快報

更多

12:20

中基協(xié):2月私募資管產(chǎn)品設(shè)立規(guī)模782.39億元,環(huán)比減少6.53%

12:19

中國已建成全球規(guī)模最大農(nóng)業(yè)氣象觀測網(wǎng)

12:18

快可電子:已成功開發(fā)微型逆變器產(chǎn)品,且已有出貨

12:17

陳志犯罪集團核心骨干成員李雄被從柬埔寨押解回國

12:16

廣汽因湃發(fā)布587Ah固液混合儲能電芯

12:16

京東科技購物智能體JoyGlance上線雷鳥AR眼鏡

12:14

智譜市值突破4100億港元,創(chuàng)歷史新高

12:08

港股午評:恒指漲1.98%重回25000點上方,科技黃金集體回暖

11:59

文遠(yuǎn)知行:啟動新加坡首個Robotaxi公開運營

11:58

特朗普稱美軍離開伊朗油價就能跌

11:57

遼寧發(fā)布20條新政策推動微短劇發(fā)展

11:53

欺詐騙保將被重點打擊,醫(yī)?;鹗褂帽O(jiān)督管理條例實施細(xì)則今起施行

11:53

雄安國家氣候觀象臺正式啟用

11:52

智己汽車3月銷量7187臺

11:51

遠(yuǎn)景首發(fā)AIDC能源解決方案,已攜手騰訊落地全球首個100%綠電直供數(shù)據(jù)中心

11:50

普冉股份:4月15日起對通用MCU相關(guān)產(chǎn)品價格進行上調(diào)

11:50

廣汽子公司因湃電池:計劃融資上市

11:47

歐盟能源專員:伊朗戰(zhàn)爭使歐盟化石燃料進口額增加140億歐元

11:46

中科宇航:力箭二號重型計劃于2028年首飛,力箭三號計劃于2030年首飛

11:46

聯(lián)想楊元慶:兩年后營收沖刺1000億美元,將探索更多AI原生設(shè)備

掃描下載App