Avride (formerly Yandex Self-Driving Group)

Main article: Self-driving cars in Russia

Yandex Self-Driving Group (Yandex SDG, Yandex Unmanned Technologies LLC) is engaged in the development of unmanned vehicles.

2024

Self-driving truck announcement

Main article: Unmanned trucks in Russia

In early September 2024, Yandex introduced an unmanned truck based on the Chinese Shacman Kh6000. A feature of the machine is the redundancy of key systems, which ensures a high level of security.

The Shacman X6000 truck is powered by a WP13H engine with a thermal efficiency of over 50%, a new intelligent driving axle, and a precise clutch that provides power transfer with an efficiency of over 99.7%. The equipment includes a system for monitoring the surrounding space with a coverage of 360 degrees: cameras allow you to distinguish objects, identify other vehicles and pedestrians in any weather conditions.

Unmanned truck "Yandex"

It is reported that Yandex has finalized the truck by installing additional sensors, radars, lidars, etc. The processing of the flow of information from these sensors is carried out by a special computing unit. The car received two sets of brakes and two sets of electric motors on the steering rack. This is done in case of failure or failure - thanks to duplication, the truck can be stopped and taken to a safe place in any accident. According to the developers, this is the only self-driving truck that has a reservation system.

We are proud of the success of our direction of self-driving cars. We managed to create one of the world's best unmanned vehicle technologies. This is a strategically important area for Yandex, so we are increasing our share in it and investing in its development, "says Arkady Volozh, co-founder and former general director of Yandex Group of Companies.

The company is actively working on autopilot technologies. At the same time, Yandex creates not only specialized software, but also hardware components, including lidars, which can change their parameters in real time and adapt to the road situation.^[1]

Yandex allocates projects of unmanned vehicles and delivery robots to a new company

Yandex projects related to self-driving cars and delivery robots are being transferred to a new company called Autonomous Transport. This became known in mid-June 2024. Read more here.

Yandex is recruiting Chinese specialists to create new generation unmanned vehicles

On January 23, 2024, it became known that Yandex was recruiting Chinese specialists to create new generation unmanned vehicles.

According to Kommersant, Yandex on its LinkedIn page said that the company is looking for an operation engineer in Suzhou, China with experience in developing electronic control units (ECUs). The description of the vacancy says that the specialist will have to cooperate with the "independent Chinese design bureau," which, together with Yandex, is developing an ECU for the "fifth generation robotaxi."

Yandex clarified to the newspaper that by January 2024 the company is developing a "universal solution" for autonomous driving, which can be used on the basis of different cars.

In this regard, we are considering various platforms for creating new generation unmanned vehicles, - explained in Yandex.

The autopilot that appeared in 2020 on the existing Yandex robotaxis belongs to the fourth level, that is, it is almost completely autonomous. It was created for the model Hyundai Sonata and refined with the Hyundai Mobis. After the start of the military special operation, the Russian Federation did not To Ukraine Hyundai significantly reduce its presence in, and Russia Yandex decided to create a system that could be introduced into different cars. At the same time, Yandex has not officially announced the creation of a fifth generation autopilot, notes. Kommersant

The newspaper adds that Suzhou, in addition to many small manufacturers of electronic components for cars, is based the plant of the Japanese Hitachi Astemo. According to the source of the publication, that direct cooperation of Yandex with this structure in the current situation is impossible and will require the creation or involvement of structures independent of the Russian company.^[2]

2023

Yandex spoke about cases of accidents with unmanned vehicles

On November 13, 2023, Yandex told about road accidents involving unmanned vehicles. The company admitted that such accidents happen, but said that there are very few of them, and they occur only through the fault of other road users.

We did not have any incidents in which a person would have suffered. Collisions with other cars are isolated, due to the fault of an unmanned vehicle, they did not occur, - said TASS in Yandex.

The company noted that the main indicator is the frequency with which the test driver has to interfere in the control of an unmanned vehicle. Yandex noted that the frequency of such cases is decreasing.

We test self-driving cars with a test driver in the driver's and passenger seats. In the driver's seat, he does not participate in the control, but in an emergency he is ready to take control. In the passenger seat, the driver has an E-stop emergency braking device, with his help, pressing one button can urgently stop the car. In addition, it is always possible to connect to the machine from a remote operator, the company added.

Earlier in 2023, JSC GLONASS"" invited Yandex to make public statistics collected by the state information system ERA-GLONASS"" about road accidents occurring with unmanned taxis of the company, this can increase user confidence in the technology and speed up its mass introduction.

Proof of the low accident rate and safety of robotaxis should be open and regularly published statistics indicating the causes of accidents encountered by unmanned vehicles on the roads, - said Alexey Raikevich, General Director of GLONASS JSC.[3]

Testing unmanned vehicles without pilots in the cabin

Yandex was the first in Europe to launch unmanned vehicles without drivers. Tests are held in Tatarstan, in Innopolis. The press service of the company announced this on October 25, 2023.

Yandex has been developing autopilot for use in taxis since 2018. The technology is tested in three stages. As part of the first phase of tests, a person sits on the driver's seat, ready to intervene in the management in case of an unforeseen situation. At the second stage, the tester is transferred to the passenger seat, while he can still use the emergency braking device. The third and final stage implies that there is no person in the cabin. At the same time, the robomobile is accompanied by another car with an operator who can stop it remotely, the company explained.

By the end of October 2023, Yandex unmanned vehicles traveled a total of 1 million kilometers in Innopolis, making 77 thousand trips. At the same time, a robotaxi service is open for everyone in the city - it can be ordered by both residents and tourists.

In October 2023, Yandex also launched unmanned taxis in test mode near Sochi, on the federal territory of Sirius, and since June, unmanned taxis of the company have been tested in the Moscow region of Yasenevo. Since the beginning of testing, unmanned Yandex cars have already traveled more than 27 million kilometers.

Passengers who used robotaxis in Yasenevo and Innopolis will automatically have access to testing in Sirius when the robotaxis service opens to passengers. At the same time, tests of unmanned vehicles without passengers in the cabin will continue in Moscow, - said in a press release, which the company distributed on October 25, 2023.[4]

Resumption of work on unmanned vehicles outside Russia

The international part of Yandex (since 2022 the company has been in the process of restructuring and divides assets into Russian and foreign ones) has opened a self-driving car development unit in Austin, Texas. This became known on September 8, 2023.

The direction of self-driving Yandex machines began to work abroad under the Avride brand. Previously, it functioned under the name Yandex Self Driving Group. As it clarifies TASS on September 8, 2023, the renaming took place until June 2023, and not so long ago Avride launched its own website.

It says that several hundred engineers work on the project, most of whom were previously involved in Yandex drones. In addition, according to the Avride web resource, the service is already helping partners in different countries, "from South Korea to the UAE," to expand delivery capabilities.

According to TASS, USA the Yandex Self Driving Group registered with the legal entity was also renamed. Its new name has not been specified.

An office is already in operation in Austin, Forbes reported. In the United States, some of the specialists of the Israeli drone development unit were also released. Another part of the team is waiting for American visas, said one of the sources of the publication, close to the Russian part of Yandex. How many employees plan to move from Israel to the United States, the interlocutor found it difficult to say.

According to him, financial reasons prompted the members of the Israeli team to move: it is expensive to live in the country. Those released to Israel in 2022 had tax breaks. So, in the first 12 months after moving to the country, foreigners can deduct from taxation living expenses - up to 330 shekels (about $87) per day or 50% of the salary. When the tax credits expired, some employees quit, the whistleblower alleges.^[5] 

Preservation in Russia of the development of unmanned vehicles after the separation of international business

Yandex retained the development of unmanned vehicles in Russia after the separation of international business. This was announced in early September 2023 by Dmitry Masyuk, head of the company's search and advertising technologies business group.

Unmanned technologies remain in Russia, all research and development belongs to Yandex - the team has 72 patents and 194 applications for new ones. After the separation, we will continue to develop autonomous driving technologies in the Russian market, "he told Izvestia.

According to the newspaper's sources, after the start of the Russian military special operation in Ukraine and the imposition of sanctions against Russia, its long-term head Dmitry Polishchuk, as well as part of the development team, left the Yandex Self-Driving Group unmanned car division. It was reported that at the same time, some Yandex business areas will be separated into independent companies and will continue to be managed by the Dutch structure Yandex N.V. These include the international Yandex drone business (the company's assets in the United States and Israel), the publication recalls.

As a result, Yandex will continue to develop robotic vehicles in the Russian Federation. By the beginning of September 2023, the corresponding division of the company conducts additional hiring from employees, Dmitry Masyuk said. The press service of the company added to the newspaper that 70 patents for developments in the field of unmanned technologies were obtained in 2022-2023. During this period, another 47 applications for new inventions were submitted. They are associated with both software (software) and hardware development: more efficient sensors, lidars and more.

Yandex has every chance to continue developing unmanned technologies in Russia - its own developments, specialists, maps and navigation, understanding driver behavior models in different situations, and so on, believes Anton Shaparin, vice president of the National Automobile Union. According to Professor Sultan Zhankaziev, the greatest difficulty faced by the Yandex drone project in 2022 after the imposition of sanctions is the availability of a component base for the production of its own technical solutions and the payback of these technologies.^[6]

Yandex has released unmanned vehicles without a driver behind the wheel on the roads of Moscow

In August 2023, Yandex launched Moscow pilot cars without a driver behind the wheel on the roads. This is a new stage in testing technology that allows the car to autonomously move in the traffic flow of a large city, the company's press service said.

The test driver can still be in the cabin of the robomobile, but he now does not have the opportunity to use the gas and brake pedals or the steering wheel, since he is in the passenger seat. At the same time, he has a special E-stop device, which, by pressing one button, allows you to safely stop the car while driving, including if necessary, make emergency braking, the company explained.

Tests are carried out from the Yasenevo metro station along Yasnogorskaya and Aivazovsky streets, Solovyiny proezd, Rokotova street and Litovsky boulevard. In space, an unmanned car is guided by a hardware and software complex that allows you to scan objects around the car within a radius of up to 300 meters.

Earlier in 2023, in June, Yandex launched a robotaxi ordering service in Moscow in test mode. You can order a trip in the Yandex Go application, it costs 100 rubles. There is always a test driver in the car.

The person driving in a taxi not only drives the car, but also performs a number of other functions. Makes minor repairs on the road, if necessary, puts a child's chair, helps people with disabilities get into the car, loads luggage, guards the car. It is wrong to believe that if the driver was removed, they saved on his salary, "says Andrei Ionin, chief analyst at the Digital Transport and Logistics Association.

According to him, trips to robotaxis, according to analysts, should cost 30% cheaper. But how economically profitable such technologies are still need to be checked.^[7]

The development of the Yandex unmanned vehicle project is being slowed down due to a lack of chips

The development of projects in the field of unmanned vehicles and artificial intelligence at Yandex is hampered by a lack of chips. This became known on February 6, 2023.

As they write Sheets"" with reference to a source of water from specialized associations, Yandex warned about the problems associated with the lack of hardware back in December 2022 at a meeting of the IT working group at one of the forums. The company, as its blog states, uses Nvidia A100 GPUs in supercomputers to improve search speed and accuracy, voice assistant, "Alice" cloud platform, Yandex.Cloud foreign language video streaming and other tasks. The supercomputer Yandex website reports that it has 1,592 Nvidia A100 80G GPUs.

The mechanisms that will allow Yandex to continue working with foreign vendors who left Russia "have been repeatedly discussed at various levels," a source in one of the major IT companies told the publication. In the spring of 2022, Yandex was supposed to receive a large batch of Nvidia devices, but the supply failed against the background of the Russian military special operation in Ukraine. The import of these devices is possible only by parallel import, but in the volumes that Yandex needs, it is difficult to import chips, the publication says.

Smart Engines CEO Vladimir Arlazarov, in a conversation with the publication, called the lack of Nvidia GPUs a serious problem for the development of artificial intelligence in Russia, which, unlike China, does not have the capacity to produce them. President of NP Glonass Alexander Gurko, in turn, believes that Nvidia's refusal to supply neuro- and graphics processors is not critical for the Russian market, since there are Chinese analogues^[8]

2022

Transfer of drone development from Russia to Israel

Yandex is transferring the development of drones from Russia to Israel. This became known on August 11, 2022.

According to Kommersant, Yandex will transfer to Israel the development of technologies for the development of unmanned taxis and delivery robots. The company has already begun transferring the work of its services to the cloud infrastructure of foreign providers. In particular, experts plan to replace the internal task manager Startrack with YouTrack or Jira, and transfer the project system code from the internal repository of Yandex to GitHub.

{{quote "In some foreign markets, we really use external cloud services, since in a number of countries the legislation requires local data to be stored on our territory. Now we are looking at new geographies, for example, Serbia, - reported in Yandex. }} The interlocutor of the newspaper in the relevant division of the company said that by August 11, 2022, several potential names of the new structure are being discussed, including roovvy.ai, avride.ai and avnear.ai. According to the who is service, the last two domains were occupied in late June and late July, the domain owner hid himself with privacy settings.

Yandex assured that the source code and technologies of unmanned vehicles will remain in Russia.

The interlocutor of the newspaper in one of the relevant ministries said that after the start of a special operation in Ukraine and the introduction of large-scale sanctions against Russia, domestic developers of unmanned vehicles began to experience difficulties in purchasing equipment. Smart Engines CEO Vladimir Arlazarov clarified that the problems arose due to logistics.

By transferring the work of its services to external clouds, Yandex seeks to provide itself with mobility, emphasize international status, and also reduce sanctions risks, Arlazarov said.^[9]

The dismissal in the United States of dozens of employees involved in unmanned vehicles and courier robots

Yandex has fired dozens of employees in the United States involved in unmanned vehicles and courier robots. This became known at the end of March 2022.

According to The Verge, Yandex claims that on March 9, 2022, the company received a notification that its licenses had been suspended by the Michigan Department of Transport (MDOT). Six drivers in Ann Arbor have been made redundant, the company confirmed. In addition, Yandex has fired 21 workers in Arizona and Ohio - support staff for courier robots.

In turn, the state authorities, commenting on what was happening, said that they had not suspended licenses for testing unmanned vehicles. Michigan Secretary of State spokeswoman Tracy Wimmer said Yandex still has 14 valid license plates by the end of March 2022 to allow tests of unmanned vehicles.

Yandex insists that the authorities put pressure on the company to stop its activities in Ann Arbor, the newspaper writes. Yandex spokeswoman Yulia Schweiko told The Verge that the company met with MDOT representatives in early March, during which they called on it to suspend the tests.

On March 9 [2022], the Michigan Department of Transportation informed us that the testing license had been suspended. Testing on the road without it is impossible, so we had to lay off six drivers in Ann Arbor, "Schweiko added.

It is noted that the state Department of Transport had a contract with Yandex to manage the autonomous service during the 2021 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, but it was terminated on July 1 due to the pandemic. The department said that now they have nothing to do with the company.^[10]

Permission to launch unmanned taxis in Moscow

The government allowed Yandex to launch unmanned taxis in Moscow. This became known on March 17, 2022.

The operation of driverless cars with a driver will be allowed in the metropolitan area of ​ ​ Yasenevo, and in addition - on the territory of Innopolis in Tatarstan and on the federal territory of Sirius near Sochi. Tests without a test driver will be allowed in Innopolis and Skolkovo.

On February 4, the deputy mayor of the capital for issues transport Maxim Liksutov said that unmanned tram tests would begin in the capital within a year. According to him, by the to data end of 2022 - the beginning of 2023, such a tram may begin to operate in test mode^[11]

Suspension of US self-driving car testing

Yandex temporarily stops road tests of unmanned vehicles in the city of Ann Arbor in the United States. This became known on March 5, 2022. Read more here.

2021

Launch of lidar production for unmanned vehicles

On November 23, 2021, it became known about the production by Yandex of its own lidars intended for unmanned vehicles. The company has equipped all its fourth-generation self-driving vehicles based on Hyundai Sonata with such sensors, and in the future it is planned to use only these solutions instead of third-party ones.

Lidar is one of the key sensors of a self-driving car. It scans space with human-safe laser beams and makes a three-dimensional map of the world around it. By processing reflected rays, lidar can determine the shape of objects at a distance of several hundred meters, including in the dark. Lidar helps the drone understand its position in space with an accuracy of a centimeter by comparing the resulting scan with built-in 3D maps.

Yandex associated the peculiarity of its lidar with flexible parameter setting. It sends millions of pulses per second, scanning space with beams whose positions can change in real time depending on road scenarios. So, when driving along a narrow street, where there are many pedestrians, lidar can focus the rays on the road in front of the car, and on wide high-speed tracks - focus on objects in the distance. Changing the settings will allow you to recognize a passenger car at a distance of 200 meters, and a truck from 500 meters, the company said.

It is noted that the own production of lidars helps to optimize the cost of devices. At a price comparable to the third-party lidars used earlier, Yandex sensors have significantly more advanced characteristics. When switching to mass production, this can make unmanned technology more scalable, the company added.

By the end of November 2021, cars equipped with Yandex's own lidars had already traveled more than 500 thousand km.

Launch of an unmanned taxi in Moscow

On September 8, 2021, Yandex announced the launch of the first unmanned taxi service in Moscow, which anyone can use. At the first stage, passenger traffic on self-driving cars will be available in the Yasenevo area in the south of the capital. Read more here.

Minek has developed a program to launch commercial unmanned taxis

On September 2, 2021, it became known about the program developed by the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation to launch commercial unmanned taxi services in the country. The document was created in cooperation with Yandex. Read more here.

Yandex buyout shares in the self-driving car business from Yandex.Taxi

According CNews to the press service Yandex of "," the company will fully buy out from the joint venture (JV) with the company - the group Uber of companies "," Yandex.Taxi shares in "," Yandex.Ede"," Yandex.Lavke"Yandex.Delivery," as well as in business self-driving cars and rovers. The total amount of the transaction, according to data to Yandex, is estimated at $1 billion. This became known on August 31, 2021. More. here

Morgan Stanley estimates Yandex self-driving car business at $7 billion

Investment bank Morgan Stanley has estimated Yandex's self-driving car development business at $7 billion. This is stated in the report, which analysts published in early August 2021.

As Forbes writes with reference to this study, Yandex has made visible progress in terms of commercial development of autopilot, and now the company is one of the ten largest developers of self-driving machines and may be in third place in terms of mileage of such vehicles.

Analysts named Waymo (a division of Google) and Cruise (a subsidiary of General Motors) as market leaders, each of which was valued at $30 billion at Morgan Stanley.

Morgan Stanley noted that it is difficult to evaluate the developers of self-driving cars. They do not disclose financial performance. Their data in the public domain can rarely be compared correctly. For comparison, they took five indicators: the number of test miles traveled on public roads, the driver's intervention in the drone during the trip, the size of the fleet, the number of employees and patents.

The report notes that despite the modest budget, Yandex has managed to achieve exceptional success in developing autonomous driving technologies, but more needs to be invested to maintain leadership.

To maintain market position, Yandex should invest more in research and development and expand its fleet, according to Morgan Stanley. By the beginning of August 2021, Yandex's fleet consists of 170 unmanned vehicles: perhaps in 2022 the company will look for an external investor to accelerate the development of its drones, analysts say.

In general, Yandex unmanned vehicles have already traveled more than 8 million miles (12.87 million km), the company employs 400 employees, and the unmanned fleet consists of 170 cars.^[12]

Yandex has published the world's largest dataset for training unmanned vehicles

Yandex has published, according to the company, the world's largest dataset for training self-driving cars. This was announced on July 22, 2021.

The Russian Internet company has revealed the dataset from its self-driving machines for the purpose of research in the field of machine learning and autonomous transport. The base contains more than 1600 hours of traffic, divided into 600 thousand marked fragments of trips on the roads of Russia, Israel and the United States in different weather.

Yandex notes that all the data are impersonal: for example, the data on unmanned vehicles contains high-precision route maps and tracks of all surrounding cars and pedestrians (their position, speed, acceleration, etc.), but does not use video where car numbers or the faces of passers-by would be visible. The researchers will have to train the algorithms on the data provided and then test the quality of their performance under shear conditions.

If you are used to driving in a small city, then in Moscow you do not immediately adapt to traffic and, most likely, at first you will be more careful on the road, "says Andrey Malinin, senior researcher at Yandex Research. - This is the data shift. You can evaluate its scale and adjust your actions. Machine trained models must be able to do the same - estimate the magnitude of the shift and act effectively under new conditions. The breadth of its application will depend on how well the algorithm can work when shifting data.

Dataset was published for the Shifts Challenge, which Yandex will hold as part of the NeurIPS 2021 international conference together with scientists from Oxford and Cambridge. The challenge of the competition is to draw attention to the problem of "data shifting" in machine learning. The creators of algorithms that show the best quality will receive cash prizes.

2020

Yandex has allocated the development of unmanned vehicles to Yandex SDG

On September 4, 2020, Yandex announced the separation of the direction of unmanned vehicles into a separate company, which was called Yandex Self-Driving Group (Yandex SDG). Previously, it belonged to the Yandex.Taxi group of companies. 

After the restructuring, Yandex will buy out part of Uber's stake in Yandex SDG, as well as additionally invest $100 million in the new company and issue a convertible loan for another $50 million. As a result, Yandex's share in Yandex SDG will be 73%, Uber's share - 19%, the remaining shares will go to the motivation program for employees. The head of the direction of unmanned vehicles Dmitry Polishchuk will become the executive director of Yandex SDG.

We are proud of the success of our direction of unmanned vehicles, "says Arkady Volozh, head of the Yandex group. - In just three years, we managed to create one of the world's best technologies for unmanned vehicles. This is a strategically important area for Yandex, so we are increasing our share in it and investing in its development. Additional investments will allow the team to take to a new level an excellent product that will benefit the Yandex service ecosystem and will be able to realize commercial potential outside the company, including in the international market.

By the beginning of September 2020, in the fleet of unmanned vehicles "Yandex" there are 130 units of equipment that are tested in, and Russia USA. Israel Regulation in the Russian Federation does not yet allow drones to move around the city without an engineer, while they drive only on To Innopolis (the first To Europe unmanned taxi to transport passengers without a driver behind the wheel works there).

The Yandex Self-Driving Group division was created as a result of a restructuring, under which the Yandex.Drive car-sharing service will be transferred to the Yandex.Taxi group and its indicators will begin to be reflected separately in the results of the taxi segment.^[13]

The start of testing in the United States

In August 2020, Yandex launched regular testing of unmanned vehicles in the United States - the city of Ann Arbor in the US state of Michigan, where drones are allowed to take to the roads without a test engineer behind the wheel.

"In Michigan, unmanned vehicles are allowed to take to the roads without a test engineer behind the wheel, so testing in Ann Arbor will expand the Yandex experience gained in Innopolis, where the first To Europe driverless robotaxi service has been operating for almost two years," the message says.

The cost of unmanned cars "Yandex" halved

On June 3, 2020, the cost of Yandex unmanned vehicles was halved. Thanks to this, the company expects to quickly increase the number of such vehicles tested on public roads.

We have halved from the second [generation]. The second [generation] already cost less than a hundred [thousand dollars], now we have halved, "Vesti reports with reference to Artyom Fokin, director of business development for unmanned vehicles at Yandex. - By and large, when the car is hung with equipment and it can drive itself, a new object is obtained, equivalent in properties to a car with two drivers. And this thing is already more profitable than the salary of two drivers.

By the beginning of June 2020, Yandex switched to the fourth generation of self-driving cars and plans to take them to the streets of all Russian cities in which the company is already testing them. This includes Moscow and Innopolis in Tatarstan.

According to Fokin, by the beginning of 2020, Yandex had about 100 robotic vehicles, and by the end of December this fleet is planned to be increased to 200 "or a little more around the world." Moreover, the company intends to increase the number of unmanned vehicles due to the Hyundai Sonata model. Previously, Yandex used hybrid Toyota Prius to test autopilot.

Artyom Fokin noted that when entering mass production, the volumes will be much larger. The order of prices for sensors and equipment will also change.

Of course, we are interested in agreeing with everyone in such a way that cars already from the plant come equipped with all the necessary equipment. So that we can fill our software there, periodically update and maintain, and no longer be distracted by laborious mechanical work, "he said, adding that this takes about three to four years.[14]

Yandex introduced the fourth generation of unmanned vehicles

On June 2, 2020, Yandex introduced the fourth generation of unmanned vehicles. They were created in conjunction with Hyundai Mobis.

The self-driving car, built on the Hyundai Sonata model, received electronic control units of the car modified by Hyundai Mobis, taking into account the tasks of autonomous driving. Yandex engineers, in turn, have improved the set of sensors in the car.

Radars appeared on the roof for more accurate recognition of cars in front and behind, and lidars on the front wings better distinguish between pedestrians and transport in conditions of limited side view. In addition, in the new generation of drones, the number of cameras has been increased (from 6 to 9), including those added with different focal lengths.^[15]

As the representative of Yandex Yulia Sheyko told Engadget, despite the addition of new equipment, equipment costs decreased by half compared to the previous generation of unmanned vehicles created in 2018.

If you look at the unmanned Hyundai Sonata as a potential taxi, then during the average life of a car in three years, the cost of installing equipment is economically more efficient than using a car and the cost of two drivers with eight-hour shifts, Artem Fokin, director of business development for unmanned vehicles, told Kommersant.

By the beginning of June 2020, the Yandex drone fleet made a total mileage of 5 million km against 1 million km in the fall of 2019. Tests are held not only  in Russia, but also  in Israel  and the USA.

By the end of 2020, Yandex intends to build 100 fourth-generation unmanned vehicles based on the Hyundai Sonata. By early June, five such robomobiles had been created.

Analysts at VTB Capital estimate the purchase and equipment of one unmanned vehicle at $60,000. However , when a Russian company uses its own lidars, this amount is likely to decrease significantly, experts say. Yandex confirms the development of its own lidars, but by early June does not use them.

2019

Yandex began to use lidars and cameras of its own production in unmanned vehicles

In mid-December 2019, it became known that Yandex"" began to be used in unmanned cars lidars vehicles and cameras of its own production. The company claims that its solutions are half cheaper than foreign counterparts.

According to TASS with reference to the press service of Yandex, by December 16, the first self-driving machines equipped with new sensors are being tested. The same devices will find use in Yandex.Rovers autonomous delivery robots.

Three main types of sensors are installed in an unmanned vehicle: cameras, radars and lidars. The latter sensor scans space with laser beams that reflect off objects and create a three-dimensional picture of the environment, unlike cameras, its operation does not depend on lighting conditions, and also gives much more information about the object than the radar.

By mid-December 2019, Yandex is working on two types of lidars: the first with a 360-degree view collects information about objects around an unmanned vehicle; the second is a solid-state lidar, which has a viewing angle of 120 degrees. In addition, cameras, which are also being developed by Yandex, and special radars are installed on unmanned vehicles.

The unmanned vehicle "Yandex" at the beginning of development cost more than $150,000. In mid-2019, its price was reduced to $100,000, and by the end of the year - to $90,000. But still, more than half of this amount is made up of unmanned vehicle control systems, of which the lion's share goes to lidars. The cost of one such sensor ranges from $10,000 to $25,000, while Yandex engineers install four sensors of different costs per machine.

Yandex says that after the start of mass production of lidars, it will be possible to save up to 75%.^[16]

Unmanned vehicle "Yandex" got into an accident

On November 12, 2019, an unmanned Yandex car got into an accident on the Aminyevskoye highway in the area of ​ ​ Projected Passage No. 493 in Moscow. The company told TASS about this.

According to Yandex, the accident occurred due to the fault of the driver who was driving the car with autopilot. After the incident, the driver was suspended from participating in testing, although no one was injured as a result of the accident, and the vehicles received minor damage.

It is noted that at the time of the collision, the Yandex car was in manual control mode, but the driver did not have time to brake in front of the car ahead.

By mid-November 2019, 69 Yandex unmanned vehicles are being tested in Moscow. In accordance with the government decree on testing drones, each car is insured for 10 million rubles.

According to the press service of Yandex, in two years of testing there have already been isolated cases of accidents with the company's drones, but they occurred through the fault of other drivers.

In particular, in June 2018, on Trubetskoy Street in Moscow, an unmanned vehicle slowed down in front of a pedestrian crossing, and the driver driving behind him did not start doing this and crashed into the car from behind.

Another incident with a Yandex drone occurred in the summer of 2019: then the test car drove behind the stop line at a red traffic light, violating traffic rules. The driver was also accused of what happened.

By September 2019, Yandex unmanned vehicles drove more than 1 million km on the roads of Russia and Israel as part of the tests. Cars with autopilot learned to move independently in conditions of busy Moscow traffic, as well as maneuver along the narrow streets of Tel Aviv. Tests were conducted in various weather conditions, including snow and rain.^[17]

Creation of a separate company for the development of unmanned vehicles - Yandex.SDK

At the end of October 2019, it became known about the creation of a separate subsidiary by Yandex.Taxi, which will focus on the development of unmanned vehicles. It is assumed that such a restructuring will allow the Russian taxi aggregator to improve profitability on the eve of the IPO.

The decision to create a new company called Yandex.KDK was made at an extraordinary general meeting of the company's members on September 18, 2019 ,  Kommersant writes with reference to a notification filed with the Bulletin of State Registration on October 2. Dmitry Polishchuk, who now heads the direction of Yandex unmanned vehicles, has been appointed General Director of Yandex.SDK.

Unmanned vehicles are a strategically important asset for Yandex, we do not consider the transfer of control. Separation is a standard process that will allow us to focus even more on business development.

The drone division would be "profitable to develop as a private legal entity" in light of Yandex.Taxi's planned IPO, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a report. The press service of Yandex reported the following:

A Kommersant source in investment circles also heard about Yandex.Taxi's desire to "crystallize" the value of this asset by selling the stake to a "third party." According to him, reducing the share in Yandex.KFK below the control one will allow Yandex.Taxi to increase profitability.

According to Raiffeisen Bank analyst Sergei Libin, it will be better for Yandex.Taxi to maintain control in Yandex.KFK, but there may not be enough money for the development of self-propelled vehicles, so it is necessary to attract investors.

It seems to me that maintaining control and selling a minority stake is the best option, the expert believes.[18]

2018

First 1,000 trips in Innopolis

On November 1, 2018, the Ministry of Informatization and Communications of the Republic of Tatarstan reported that 2 months after the launch of the test zone of unmanned vehicles in Innopolis, the Yandex.Taxi drone made its thousandth trip. Most often, residents of the city used unmanned vehicles to get to the university and the technopark. Every day, the car makes an average of 20 trips, the duration of each - within 10 minutes.

An unmanned taxi was tested by the president of RTRustam Minnikhanov. The agreement on the development of unmanned vehicles in the republic was signed by Yandex General Director in Russia Elena Bunina and Deputy Prime Minister of Tatarstan - Minister of Informatization and Communications Roman Shaikhutdinov.

It is significant that the test zone of drones from Yandex.Taxi opened precisely in Tatarstan, which has long become the place where the testing and introduction of modern technologies takes place. We also joined in the development and further implementation of these technologies in transport in the country as a whole. Thus, the mayor of Innopolis is a member of the federal working group on legislative and administrative regulation of the National Technological Initiative in the direction of "Autonet," which develops proposals, including for unmanned vehicles. We also suggested that assistant President RUSSIAN FEDERATION Igor Levitin determine the territory of Tatarstan as a pilot zone for testing unmanned vehicles. We hope that in the future it will also be our own developments and Innopolis University decisions. KAMAZ

All adult residents of the city who have agreed to participate in testing can use the Yandex.Taxi unmanned vehicle. As of November 2018, there are already two test zones in Russia where you can drive a Yandex.Taxi drone: the second has been launched in Skolkovo near Moscow since the fall of 2018.

Test zone on the territory of Skolkovo

In October 2018, Yandex signed an agreement to create a test zone for moving a car on the territory of Skolkovo. There the drone can be called right in the Yandex.Taxi application.

Yandex decided to create a test zone in Skolkovo as it is interesting for the company to understand how the drone will work in an environment that is gradually becoming the standard for urban devices.

Yandex's unmanned vehicle will be free to drive around the territory. To call it, you need to open the Yandex.Taxi application: the service itself will determine the user's location and, if he is on the territory of the science city, will offer a drone ride service along with the usual tariffs.

To use the service, you need to accept the terms of an electronic agreement on participation in testing self-driving cars. You also need to be over 18 years old - the drone rides only adult passengers. The waiting time for the car will depend on demand.

A self-driving car strictly complies with traffic rules, determines and bypasses obstacles, allows pedestrians to pass and, if necessary, urgently slows down - in general, it knows everything that ordinary cars do with a driver driving. At the same time, Yandex understands that drones are an unusual phenomenon on the roads. Therefore, in the cabin of the car there will always be a test engineer who monitors its movement^[19]

Yandex agreed with the Moscow authorities on the development of unmanned vehicles

On July 17, 2018, Yandex announced the conclusion of an agreement with the Moscow authorities on the development of unmanned vehicles in the city. The contract for a period of five years with the possibility of extension was signed at the Moscow Urban Forum.

The parties will discuss the details of the agreements later, but it is already known that joint work with the authorities will prepare a legislative framework for the introduction of unmanned vehicles on the streets of Moscow. As a result, testing prototypes of robomobiles in real conditions will become easier.

As explained in the capital's mayor's office, within the framework of the agreement, it is planned to create standards that, in particular, will determine responsibility for an accident, so that it is clear who is to blame for the accident: the programmer who wrote the software, or the robot itself under some number, or the manufacturer. It is also necessary to determine technical standards, for example, at what frequency the traffic light signal should be transmitted directly to the car.

The signed document provides for the development and implementation in Moscow of unmanned control technologies on all types of urban passenger transport and the formation of business models when providing services using self-driving machines.

In addition, technologies for telematic transport and intelligent automotive systems and services based on them will be developed. Personnel will be trained in this area, as well as the development and testing of solutions related to cybersecurity in the operation of unmanned vehicles.

It is assumed that highly automated and unmanned vehicles will be developed using mainly Russian technologies. The safety of testing unmanned vehicles will be ensured by a comprehensive traffic management scheme and an intelligent transport system.^[20]

Tests on the Moscow-Kazan route: 789 km on autopilot

The unmanned vehicle of the Yandex.Taxi service independently overcame the distance between Moscow and Kazan. This was written by Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

There was an experienced pilot in the car all the time who watched the behavior of the drone. However, the car drove 99% of the way itself. In total, the unmanned vehicle covered a distance of 789 kilometers in 11 hours.

These are the first tests of the novelty in the conditions of a real road. At the same time, the car managed to "visit" in different weather conditions - under the scorching sun and in the rain. Throughout, the quality of asphalt and markings changed, and the route narrowed or expanded. In addition, the car drove both dark and during daylight hours.

Winter tests in Moscow

In February 2018, after a snowfall in, a To Moscow prototype of an unmanned vehicle developed by Yandex.Taxi was tested. This is stated in the press release of the company (available). RBC

In the driver's seat of the drone, which moved along the snow-covered streets of the capital, there was a test driver, but the trip was completely automatic. The tests took place in the Khamovniki area, where the main office of Yandex is located.

"It

is important for us to train unmanned vehicles to move in different weather conditions, including in winter, which lasts a long time in most of Russia. Trips in the cold season have their own features. First, the drone needs to be able to overcome the difficulties faced by ordinary drivers. First of all, this is snow and ice, "the press release said

. "Secondly,

special requirements in winter are imposed on the processing of video stream from cameras. The image with an abundance of white is very different from the picture that the drone "sees" in the summer. In winter, it is more difficult to identify the outlines of the road, to count road markings and signs, "the company explained

.

Before the drone was tested on public roads, the development team made many test runs at the training ground, including in winter.

2017

Drone demonstration to President Putin

On September 21, 2017, the president Russia Vladimir Putin visited the Moscow office. " Yandex The visit was timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Yandex. The president was shown an unmanned vehicle developed by Yandex. Putin watched the Prius hybrid car Toyota move and drive around the company's courtyard.

Read more about the president's visit here.

Testing a prototype unmanned taxi

In May 2017, Yandex presented a prototype of an unmanned taxi of its own design. A two-minute video showing the testing of the car was posted on the Web on May 30, 2017. In the video, a car with an empty driver's seat copes with such tasks as picking up a passenger, wrapping around the corner of a building or driving around tanks placed on the road.

Testing was carried out on a deserted section of the road, the company is going to test autopilot in urban traffic in 2018. The ultimate goal of the project is to create an unmanned vehicle of the fifth category, the highest in the classification of drones. This category assumes complete non-interference of a person in the driving process.

According to Dmitry Polishchuk, head of the project to create an unmanned Yandex.Taxi, driverless cars will dramatically change transport links in the next 10 years. Many companies are developing projects in this area, but most lack either resources, or their own developments, or engineering and technical experience, notes Polishchuk^[21].

Autopilot was created on the basis of Yandex's own technologies, such as computer mapping, real-time navigation, computer vision and object recognition. All these developments have been used in other services of the company for a long time, Yandex writes in its blog. Some of them are now solving new problems: for example, computer vision, which used to help search for the same images in search results, now recognizes road signs and looks for free slots in the parking lot.

In conditions of difficult urban traffic, Yandex autopilot will be able to make decisions on its own, corporate algorithms, artificial intelligence and machine learning are responsible for this. As explained to the TechCrunch resource in Yandex, this became possible thanks to anonymous data received from users of the Yandex.Navigator service. The service collects information about traffic jams, incidents, speed limits and other road circumstances.

As for hardware, Yandex uses both its developments and the common products of well-known manufacturers in the project, writes TechCrunch. In the video, you can see the Nvidia GPU in the car itself, as well as the Velodyne lidar on the roof. Now Yandex is negotiating with partners to create custom hardware for the project.

2016

Yandex is going to launch an unmanned taxi in the capital

It is expected that the project will be implemented on the basis of the Yandex.Taxi service. As the head of PR projects of the service Elina Staviskaya told the m24.ru network publication in September 2016, the company is now negotiating with several representatives of the automotive industry. The subject of discussion is the start of testing the semi-autonomous control system of the car^[22].

In addition, Staviskaya noted that Yandex.Taxi sees great potential in integrating the service of intelligent distribution of orders and unmanned vehicles.

Start of development of self-driving cars

In February 2016, it became known about Yandex's plans to develop unmanned vehicles. The company intends to become one of the pioneers of the autonomous vehicle control technology market.

According to Vedomosti, an announcement has appeared on the Yandex website about the vacancy of a research developer who will have to deal with technologies for recognizing traffic lights, signs, lanes and markings, cars and other road users. Yandex also wants to learn how to compare the flow of incoming data from cameras and radars, simulate surrounding objects, monitor them and predict behavior, plan and execute maneuvers, the company said.

Yandex calls its main goal to be "among the first companies in the world to create technology for unmanned vehicle control."

Earlier, by the way, Yandex has already taken steps towards autonomous transport: in 2016, the company entered into an agreement with Kamaz to create and implement artificial intelligence in cars.

In addition, in the same year, Yandex was engaged in a city minibus project without a driver: it was planned that an unmanned vehicle could carry 10-12 people. The new vacancy concerns a separate project, specified in Yandex.

In addition to Yandex, large automakers are developing an unmanned vehicle. In 2017, Tesla Motors, BMW, Ford Motor and Volvo Cars promised to have their fully self-driving cars on the road over the next five years.

In parallel, Kamaz is working on an unmanned truck. In February 2015, the automobile plant announced a partnership with the IT company Cognitive Technologies, which was supposed to create an artificial intelligence system, and Kamaz would finalize the car for it.^[23] For more details, see the KamAZ unmanned vehicle.

Yandex.Taxi

Yandex.Taxi is an online taxi ordering service through the iOS and Android application, as well as on the website taxi.ya.ru. The service was launched in October 2011, the web version - in the summer of 2012. By ordering a car, a passenger can choose a price category and stipulate the presence of a child seat, air conditioner, etc.

In addition to Moscow the service, it is available in 48 cities Russia and neighboring countries: Ukraine,,, and Armenia Georgia Belarus Kazakhstan. According to the company, about 120 thousand drivers work with Yandex.Taxi in 1200 taxi companies and control rooms. The monthly turnover of the service in December 2016 amounted to 16.2 million trips.

Notes