Navio: Self-driving cars

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• Self-driving cars in Russia
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2025

Navio prepares to bring subscription self-driving truck service to market

As TAdviser found out, Autotech (operating under the Navio brand) plans to launch the Subscription to Autonomous Truck service on the market. This is one of the options being worked out to monetize unmanned control technologies that the company is developing for cars. At a press event on October 14, Ivan Solomin, director of marketing and work with Navio government agencies, told TAdviser that such a service could be expected to enter the market in the next six months.

This can work like this: the customer buys a tractor from the automaker - the partner here is now the Chinese company Sinotruck, equipped with unmanned Navio technologies, access to which will open after purchasing a subscription. After that, the machine can be used autonomously.

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Фото: TAdviser

It is assumed that the "Subscription to an autonomous truck" will include a set of related services for the client: for example, monitoring, ordering and others accompanying the cargo, Ivan Solomin specified, answering a TAdviser question. In addition, this also includes services from Navio to integrate its digital truck control solution into customer systems such as TMS, WMS, etc.

Moreover, as TAdviser noted, in one of the vacancies on the HH recruiting portal posted by Navio in October, integration is called the key point: in particular, this is stated in the vacancy of the manager for the management of trunk transportation projects^[1]who is entrusted with the mission of bringing to market and piloting the service "Subscription to an autonomous truck": he will be "the person who turns the technology prototype into a working, scalable business product for the company's first and most important customers."

The future employee will, among other things, actively interact with clients - "large logistics companies and commercial parks like Ozon, Wildberries, to understand their pains, adapt the product to their realities and prepare them for the transition to autonomous management of the fleet."

Meanwhile, on the basis of unmanned trucks, Navio is already engaged in commercial cargo transportation for large retailers, FMCG manufacturers and transport companies. Since 2023, its unmanned trucks have been plying the M-11 route between Moscow and St. Petersburg for this purpose. The service is provided according to the classic scheme: the company simply transports goods from hub to hub.

In this case, according to the current legislation, in the cabin of an autonomous tractor there should be an observer engineer who ensures traffic safety in case of emergency situations. And in addition to complying with legislative requirements, the presence of a person is also necessary to work out a number of scenarios that can then be applied when switching to fully autonomous driving, Ivan Solomin explained in a conversation with TAdviser. We are talking about such scenarios as, for example, refueling a car.

However, in the process of development, and more than one year, there is a draft federal law on regulating the movement of highly automated vehicles, the output of which, as market players expect, will remove a person from unmanned vehicles. The business community, including Autotech, is also involved in its creation. In early October , the head of the Ministry of Transport Andrei Nikitin reported that the draft of this federal law would be submitted to the government by the end of 2025.

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Фото: TAdviser

According to Navio as of October 2025, its own fleet includes 220 units of unmanned vehicles, of which about 45 are trucks, and the rest are cars. Freight transport, in particular, is represented by tractors, which, as mentioned above, are produced by the Chinese company Sinotruck. There is an agreement with it to install Navio equipment directly from the plant on tractors. And after Navio will equip them already in its engineering center.

It is noteworthy that, according to a Navio representative, the company communicates on the topic of possible cooperation with KAMAZ: "We are open to everyone." But the latter is also developing in the field of unmanned trucks, being a competitor for Navio. Other competitors of Navio include Evocargo, which also provides a commercial cargo transportation service based on autonomous transport.

It is worth noting that Navio is already running a commercial service based on passenger cars. This is being done on the basis of the SberCity district in the area in the west of Moscow. In this case, the model is based on the movement of autonomous cars along the route, which will come to the nearest stop at the request of passengers. The company announced the launch of this project in May 2025. Also, according to a Navio representative, cars are tested according to a similar model in one of the settlements in the Moscow region, where the university is present.

Appearance in SberCity

On the territory of SberCity in Ruble and Arkhangelsky, Navio autonomous transport appeared. This is part of the company's large-scale concept for introducing urban transport of the future in cities. As of May 2025, the process of testing technologies based on the infrastructure of a smart district is underway. In the future, it is planned to create a network of routes for autonomous cars with the ability to scale outside the territory of SberCity. Sberbank announced this on May 29, 2025. Read more here.

2022: Self-driving car tests in St Petersburg

The SberAvtoTech company tested unmanned vehicles in St. Petersburg, previously the company tested them only in Moscow and the region. Drones with a test driver driving transported passengers on Krestovsky Island, at least two cars took part in the races, it follows from the materials that N + 1 found.

In 2020, the company began test runs of drones based on the Kia Ceed SW in Moscow, and in April 2022 said that it was carrying its employees in unmanned vehicles in the east of the city. At the same time, it became known that since the fall of 2021, the company's drones have been carrying people on the territory of SberUniversity in the Moscow region. Now N + 1 has found out that the company recently tested drones on the roads of St. Petersburg.

During the races, passengers got into drones near the Gazprom Arena stadium, and then drove past the Krestovsky Ostrov metro station^[2] on the ^[3].

2020: Testing on the streets of Moscow

The first self-driving cars Sber Automotive Technologies went to the streets Moscow for testing in a winter metropolis: drones will be tested with high humidity, negative temperature, poor visibility and a difficult road situation. This was Sber announced TAdviser on December 22, 2020.

Sberbank is testing its drones on the streets of Moscow

As noted, unmanned cars of Sberbank passed preliminary tests and received all the necessary permits for movement on public roads.

By the end of 2020, SberAvtoTech expects to increase the number of its drones to ten. At the same time, it is expected that their number will continue to grow in 2021.

It will be possible to recognize Sberbank cars according to the characteristic graphics on the body and the "A" sign on the trunk door. Drivers will be driving drones in accordance with the requirements of current legislation.

Unmanned vehicles have an on-board computer of their own design, which uses the cartography of 2GIS, another company in the Sberbank ecosystem.

SberAvtoTech is a division of Sber, created in April 2020. For seven months, several cycles of research and design work were carried out, which made it possible to build the first series of its own unmanned vehicles.

Notes