Russina Tech giant, Yandex is spinning out its self-driving car unit from the ride-hailing and food delivery joint venture it operates in partnership with Uber.
The standalone company with a new investment of $150 million, Yandex believes, will further progress towards its goal of creating a safe and convenient transportation ecosystem. In the new Yandex Self Driving Group the Russian company will have stake of 73% and Uber will have 19%, and the rest will be reserved for the unit’s management.
The company also said it will continue to work to develop technology for the long-term integration into ride-hailing, food delivery, car sharing, e-commerce, and logistics projects within Yandex ecosystem and beyond.
Yandex started its journey towards self driving cars in 2017 since then the company has developed technology that enables driverless vehicles to safely navigate city streets, it has launched in Europe a robotaxi service. The company claims its self-driving fleet has grown to 130 cars and has driven more than 4 million autonomous miles on city streets in Russia, Israel, and the US.
The company also started testing its self-driving car in US, it has chosen Ann Arbor, a university town in Michigan as testing ground.
Source: Yandex
