Autonomous Last-Mile Delivery Vehicles in Complex Traffic Environments

Abstract

In this chapter, we present a case study of a commercial autonomous last-mile delivery vehicle operating in complex traffic environments. Logistics service is an essential component of a satisfactory e-commerce experience because consumers commonly expect the purchased goods to be delivered safely and quickly. Last-mile delivery here refers to the delivery of goods ordered online from a local distribution center to the consumers. As the final stage of the e-commerce delivery process, autonomous last-mile delivery is extremely challenging as it must handle complex traffic environments. The main motivations for autonomous last-mile delivery services lies in the intrinsic disadvantages suffered by traditional last-mile deliveries: first, growing labor cost may be prohibitive for service providers like JD.com, a leading e-commerce company in China. Indeed, from our operational data, a contracted delivery clerk with an annual salary of almost $20,000 can deliver 110 e-commerce parcels per day, which renders that each delivery order costs nearly 0.5 USD. This cost is expected to continue increasing as the demographic dividend has reached its end. Secondly, a delivery clerk has to spend time on repeatedly contacting the consumers, waiting for their pickups , and traveling on the road, where time is wasted which diverts humans from other more creative work. Fortunately, autonomous driving technologies respond to this exact problem and the benefits of utilizing an autonomous driving vehicle to replace a delivery clerk lie in the following aspects.