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Say Goodbye To Your Cab Driver–RoboTaxi is Just About Here.

by David Parmer / Tokyo

Pretty soon chatting with a friendly and knowledgeable taxi driver may be a thing of the past. No, he’s not gone yet, but it is only a matter of time before you may see him in cook’s whites stir frying your favorite dish at a local restaurant. This will be thanks to the rise of the robotaxi or autonomous vehicle–a vehicle that has no need for a human driver. And they are coming. No, that’s not quite true: they are here already.

Many of us can remember the introduction of the first mobile telephones. Some people had them and they were a novelty. Then more and more people got them, and then, like magic, they were everywhere.

This same pattern is now being played out with the driverless vehicles or robotaxi. And while there are many self-driving car companies in the US, China is really the epicenter of the action and excitement in the application of this new technology. Several companies are partnering to move this technology forward and see its seamless introduction into society. These include:

WeRide– Now operating Guangzhou next to Hong Kong, the company is operating its driverless vehicles with a safety driver. They are using Alibaba’s Autonavi application. We Ride has gotten an $18million investment from Renault, Nissan, Mitsubishi in 2018. In July 2020 the company got the first license for driverless vehicles in China.
AutoX–Partnering with Alibaba and Fiat-Chrysler, AutoX is Fiat Chrysler’s “in” to the Chinese market. In spring 2020 a test of AutoX vehicles was run in Shanghai’s Jading area with the target of introducing an eventual 100 test vehicles. Customers can book a ride on AutoX by using the AutoNavi application from Alibaba.
Apollo Robotaxi–Partnered with China’s search giant, Baidu, Apollo started triala in Changsha, Hunan Province in April 2020 using its own DUTAXI app. Besides Baidu, partners include SIAC Motors, Geely, Alibaba and Tencent.
DiDi Chuxing–China’s major ride-hailing company has started testing in Shanghai’s Jading region with Level 4 cars with safety drivers as required by Chinese law. Their target is 1 million self-driving vehicles by 2030.

Pony.ai–Founded in 2016 in California, Pony.ai started China testing of its vehicles in 2018 in Guangzhou. In 2019 they partnered with Hyundai and GAC. They also received a whopping $400 million investment from Japan’s Toyota Motors.

In the not-too-distant future China may lead the world in the area of autonomous vehicles. Certainly it is off to a good start. When driverless vehicles have moved to the total autonomy of Level 5, (no safety driver), then the next logical step will be driverless private vehicles for those who can afford them.

So the next time you take a taxi, enjoy your conversation with the driver–there is a good chance you will not be seeing him again in the near future.

Photo: International Labor Organization via flickr

Alibaba in Transition: Will the Magic Continue?

“No company can rely solely on its founders” (Jack Ma)

“Our goal is that in five years we will serve more than one billion customers globally.” (Daniel Zhang)

As transitions go, the ascent of Daniel Zhang and the bowing out of Jack Ma at Alibaba was seamless. One year before Alibaba’s 20th anniversary on September 10, 2019, Jack Ma announced his retirement as Executive Chair of the world’s most valuable e-commerce company.

Founder Jack Ma’s story is the stuff of legend, and as such it will most likely be embellished and repeated for a long time to come.

Start with a skinny teacher of English who pedaled his bicycle through the rain to have a chance to chat with tourists to improve his English, add to that a guy who applied to, and was rejected by Harvard University 10 times, drop in the fact that he was also rejected by Kentucky Fried Chicken when they came to China, and then finish by retelling the part where the same guy had a vision of the Internet in China and subsequently became the richest man in China. Considering all of this, Jack Ma, or Ma Yun, is indeed a hard act to follow.

Daniel Zhang, by all accounts, seems to be up to the job.

A graduate of the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Daniel Zhang joined Alibaba in 2007 at Taobao, the world’s biggest e-commerce website. Mr. Zhang’s background in finance might make him seem a bit lackluster compared to Alibaba’s founder, but clearly his is not without vision and imagination. On Zhang’s watch Single’s Day or Double 11, the wildly-successful online shopping spree was launched in 2009 on the T-Mall platform. Fast-forward to 2018 where Single’s Day saw sales reached $30.8 billion over a 24-hour period, easily eclipsing the Black Friday shopping day in the west.

The actual transition at Alibaba was celebrated with a huge party. Two short speeches were presented: one by Jack Ma, and one by the incoming Executive Chair, Daniel Zhang.

In his short speech Zhang outlined the vision for the future of Alibaba. Key points included:

To serve more than one billion customers worldwide in 5 years
To have the capability to handle 10 trillion RMB in transactions
To continue to create value for society
To solve society’s problems
To be a company that shoulders social responsibility

And now, with Jack Ma out of the picture it is up to Daniel Zhang and his team to make these goals and this vision for Alibaba’s future a reality. Will they succeed? Please let us know what you think about this.

Jack Ma and Alibaba Take A Big Hit

Internet giant Alibaba has taken a substantial hit this week when its stock price dropped by 5%. The stock closed at $73.38, the lowest since the 2014 NYSE IPO. The company reported a 28% increase in earnings, but this was below market expectations. Analysts say Alibaba is faced with the slowing of the Chinese economy and stiff competition from rival Internet companies Baidu and Tencent.

Alibaba founder Jack Ma’s personal fortune is said to have declined $752 million with the fall of the stock price. To reassure investors, the company has agreed to a $4 billion buyback and the founder and current executive vice chairman say they will not sell their Alibaba shares.

On a positive note, the company seems to still have an appetite for expansion. They will invest $4.6 billion in Chinese electronics retailer Suning. This will give Alibaba access to a ready-made distribution network to increase speed of delivery in the Chinese market. Ma says that he takes the long view on this situation.

(Report compiled from Web sources)

Person of Interest : Alibaba’s Lucy Peng

Lucy Peng, (Peng Lei) has been with Alibaba since the beginning. She is one of the original 19 co-founders of the game-changing Hangzhou startup that went on to become one of the most talked about IPOs ever launched on the New York Stock Exchange.

Peng, who was not even sure which way the company would go when she signed on in the late 1990s is now listed as # 33 on Forbes Magazine list of the world’s most powerful women. After graduating in 1994 from the Hangzhou Institute of Commerce she taught college briefly before joining Jack Ma’s improbable venture. Peng has held various positions within Alibaba to include:

CEO of Alipay
Chief People Officer (HR)
CEO of Small and Micro Financial Services

Small and Micro Financial Services has been re-named Ant Financial Services. Ant Financial Services, which Peng heads up, processes Ali Pay transactions, handles the Yu’E Bao fund and manages a new internet bank. Ali Pay, which is like PayPal, has 100 million users. There are rumors that Ant Financial Services might go public in 2017. So far Jack Ma has no comment on this.

Last month, in May 2015, Jack Ma reshuffled his management team. CEO Jonathan Lu was replaced by accountant Daniel Zhang. Analysts said Ma did this to counter Alibaba’s falling share price and adverse publicity.

At the same time Ma sent a letter to his staff explaining that there must be a change of management to the 1970s generation. Previously, he himself had said that he was getting too old for the business.

So where does this leave Lucy Peng? Her name does not appear in the announcement of the re-shuffle, so it seems that she is secure, at least temporarily, in her position as CEO of one of the most promising of the Alibaba entities, which some day may have an IPO to rival Alibaba’s own.

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Peng Lei Interview: The DNA Code of Alibaba

http://www.daonong.com/g/2009en/specialreport/20090914/10769.html

Alibaba Management

http://www.alibabagroup.com/en/about/leadership

Jack Ma’s Memo: Born in the 70’s

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/05/07/born-in-the-70s-jack-mas-memo-to-alibaba-employees-on-management-shuffle/