DUBAI: noon, the Middle East’s homegrown digital marketplace created in the region and powered by the region’s leading retailers, has announced it has partnered with Chinese technology company Neolix to trial driverless delivery vehicles designed to make last-mile delivery even smoother.
Pushing the boundaries of technology in the region is core to noon.com’s values. This partnership with Neolix, a Beijing-based technology company specializing in the R&D and the production of autonomous vehicles, is the next step in delivery innovation.
Mohamed Alabbar, noon.com’s founder signed a memorandum of understand (MoU) with Neolix Huitong (Beijing) Technology co., LTD, to introduce autonomous delivery vehicles into the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. This will be the first time such technology has been used in the region and will open a new spectrum of opportunity to introduce powerful Chinese technology to the world.
Mohamed Alabbar, founder of noon.com, said of the partnership, “Introducing new technology to the region that will improve the e-commerce experience for customers is something we’re incredibly excited about. noon is very proud to bring driverless delivery vans to streets in our cities. We look forward to bringing many such innovations over the next few months. We are a hungry, talented and ambitious nation. I hope it will inspire our tech-driven youth to dream big and to achieve those dreams because everything is possible here.”
Autonomous technology has been transforming the way that companies deliver goods and services to consumers overseas. Now, with the help of noon.com and Neoflix, the same technology will be available here in the region. Over the next few weeks, noon.com will trial autonomous vehicles to complete its last-mile delivery in key areas of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The driverless vehicles will be built by Neoflix who have deep knowledge and experience with the productization of autonomous technology. The driverless vans are being especially customized to suit the region’s weather conditions, and are being seamlessly integrated with noon’s logistics platform.
Having already created a hyper-efficient homegrown logistics and supply chain setup in the KSA, the UAE and Egypt, noon.com is now looking to make the last mile of deliveries even smoother to give customers in the region a higher quality experience. As well as being reliable and speedy, driverless vehicle technology can remove up to 90% of the cost associated with the last mile of delivery. This partnership between Neolix and noon furthers noon’s commitment to bring the best technology and solutions to serve our region’s ecommerce customers.
The Neolix project incubation started in 2015 and since then has developed and industrialized the production of autonomous vehicles targeting commercial applications, delivering 150 L4 autonomous driving vehicles. Currently, Neolix has 4 types of products: Retail, Express, Freight, and Patrol. Neolix’s mission is to reconstruct the infrastructure for future city logistics, a mission that is in line with noon.com’s tech-driven vision. With more than 10 years’ experiences in smart logistics, the Neolix team embraces the pioneering spirit to turn prototypes into usable products. Neolix vehicles are already in operation in various tourist attractions, campuses, and logistics parks across China.
Primarily a digital e-commerce platform utilizing homegrown technology capabilities, noon has rapidly built deep native capabilities in its marketplace, fulfillment, logistics and payments platforms. noon promises to bring customers in the region more choice, affordability and convenience across a wide range of products including electronics, fashion, beauty, baby, home and kitchen, as well as free, fast delivery and free returns. News Desk
