Yandex is planning on starting field tests for its self driving taxis in Moscow, Russia. This would allow the people living in the Capital city to experience the future by taking a ride in the new autonomous vehicles later this year.
The Russian tech based firm made the announced earlier this week, revealing its plans for a late 2021 testing phase. For those unaware, Yandex runs a vast majority of services in the region, ranging from online search to even food delivery, and for the past three years, the company is also looking to test self driving technology in Russia, Israel, and even the United States of America.
According to the tech giant, Robotaxis will be available from its Yandex.Go application in one Moscow district for certain customers. The company added that “The launch in Yasenevo is the first stage of a large Yandex project to launch driverless taxis. Over time, there will be more cars, the number of locations you can go to and from will increase, and ever more people will be able to hail driverless taxis.”
Unfortunately, the Russian legislation does not permit such autonomous vehicles to travel without a person at the wheel as of right now. Although, there are exception based on special economic zones, like the city of Innopolis in the Tatarstan region. Furthermore, there is also a restriction on their use in certain areas of large cities that could be partially lifted after a law recently came into force earlier this year. At the moment, Yandex owns a sizeable 170 driverless cars that have collectively traveled over 14 million kilometers. It has even employed robots that deliver restaurant meals in central Moscow.
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