JD.com to Invest 10 Billion Yuan in Changsha’s Driverless Car

China (Changsha) Intelligent Manufacturing Summit witnessed the signings of 14 major project contracts with a total investment of 34.3 billon yuan, on December 6. Among the investments was 10 billion yuan from JD.com for the Changsha Economic and Technological Development Zone.

JD.com said the JD Driverless Car Smart Industry Base Project will be implemented in two steps. Firstly, “JD Changsha Institute of Military and Civilian Sectors Integration” and “JD Driverless Car Development Center (Changsha)” will be built in Changsha Creation Coalesce to facilitate smart driverless car research and development, tests, operation and maintenance, personnel training and data center management. Secondly, 500 hectares of land will be allocated to establish a smart manufacturing industry base and produce AI robots, smart wearbles and smart vehicles, and thus set an example for smart manufacturing.

JD.com has been increasing its investment into AI technologies. At present, it has launched robots in four fields, including logistics, customer service, JIMI, product information screening and full-link pressure test Forcebots. All have been put into use.

“During the next 12 years, JD.com will apply information technologies to all of its products, businesses and services. JD.com will establish a smart business that is centered on cloud computing, AI and robotics,” said Richard Liu, CEO of JD.com.

This article originally appeared in Ebrun and was translated by Pandaily.