The Russian search engine Yandex plans tests with autonomous taxis.
Russia’s first test with a robot taxi service will be from the IT company Yandex organized. The company planned an autonomous bus two years ago and joined Uber last year NewCo allied. In the recent past, Yandex tested the technology of autonomous driving in the United States snow and turned his test rounds in Moscow,
In addition Yandex also tests KAMAZ at the technology, whereby this company wants to incorporate the technology in a truck. The company plans to mass-produce the technology by 2020. This is mainly due to the robustness of the trucks, which is due to the weather in parts of Russia.
Yandex has now announced further tests, which should be done not in the Russian capital, but in Tatarstan. Konkret plans the trial run in the university town of Innopolis – a city of the drawing board, The city is said to be Russian Silicon Valley being constructed.
I am dealing with the test vehicles for the robot taxi service Toyota Prius models. They should operate on certain routes. These include trips to the university, the sports center or certain residential areas. For safety reasons, the vehicles are staffed during the test with monitoring personnel. They check the systems and can intervene in an emergency. The trips with the robot taxi service will be free of charge. The users have to register for the test and the booking is made via the smartphone.
For the test run, two vehicles will be on public transport. If the project is successful, Yandex wants to expand the test area. The number of vehicles should be increased in the case. Furthermore, one then plans to omit the monitoring personnel.