It collaborates with Uber over Robotaxis and autonomous deliveries.
Uber, at the forefront of the future of autonomous transportation, is announcing a new partnership with Avride, formerly known as Yandex’s Self-Driving Group. As part of this multi-year agreement, customers of Uber will soon have the opportunity to take rides and accept delivery from Avride’s autonomous vehicles. The deal does much to expand an already-wide network of self-driving tech partners that Uber has been engaged with, including Waymo, Motional, WeRide, among others.
Meanwhile, the partnership with Avride marks new beginnings for autonomous mobility at a time when Uber itself is preparing to introduce these services to various cities in the United States and beyond.
But what is Avride?
Avride is the name given to the newly separated self-driving division of Yandex from its parent company after Yandex divested its Russian establishment. Yandex first announced its self-driving project way back in 2017 when it partnered with Uber to develop Yandex Taxi, which marked the birth of their robotaxi business. With new geopolitical challenges faced by the company, Yandex had put its autonomous vehicle efforts on hold following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022.
In 2023, after distancing itself from its parent company in Russia, the company was rebranded as Avride. Headquartered now in Austin, Texas, Avride has rapidly grown into one of the big players in autonomous vehicle technologies. And with this new partnership with Uber, Avride is poised for a splash in the US market.
Uber Expands Autonomous Vehicle Network with Avride
With the new partnership, Austin Uber customers will become the first to get food and other items served with Avride’s six-wheeled delivery robots via Uber Eats. The sidewalk robots are designed to be able to efficiently travel along city streets for seamless, contactless deliveries. The service will expand to Dallas and Jersey City later this year, expanding to robotaxi rides available to Uber customers in Dallas by 2025.
It also represents one of the key steps in Uber’s broader strategy of diversifying its autonomous vehicle network. In addition to Avride, Uber has inked deals with Waymo, Motional, and WeRide for autonomous ride-hailing, while companies such as Serve Robotics, Cartken, and Nuro offer support with respect to its robotic delivery initiatives. Such a growing ecosystem of partnerships speaks to the vision Uber has of itself-a hub where self-driving vehicles across many industries meet.
A look back: from Yandex to Avride
Yandex was founded in Russia in 1997 and rapidly became that country’s most popular search engine. But Yandex came to the United States in 2009 when the company opened Yandex Labs in Palo Alto, California. This was a way for the company to stay current with everything happening in Silicon Valley. By 2017, Yandex’s autonomous ambition finally reached its peak when it bought Uber’s business in Russia and set up a joint venture called Yandex Taxi.
Yandex started the world’s first robo-taxi business in Moscow. The company unveiled a fully driverless vehicle at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and after the CES debut, Yandex began testing self-driving cars in Ann Arbor, Michigan, firing up a robot delivery pilot with Grubhub in order to blanket hundreds of college campuses.
But the political backlash following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 put a halt to Yandex’s expansion plans. As Western countries cut ties with Russian businesses, Uber sold its stake in the Yandex autonomous vehicle group; other collaborators, including Grubhub and DuckDuckGo, went cold on their partnerships too.
In fact, earlier this year, Yandex’s self-driving division, rebranded as Avride, broke ties with Russia and moved forward purely as a new company involved in autonomous transportation technology.
Future of Self-Driving Cars: Uber’s Road
A deal with Avride is just one part of Uber’s strategy in trying to dominate the markets when it comes to autonomous transport. It wants to make sure people turn to the Uber platform as a means of getting an autonomous ride, whether for hailing or delivery applications, making sure self-driving cars and robotic delivery systems from various different manufacturers are more accessible, easily.
With partnerships in place with giants such as Avride, Waymo, Motional, and WeRide, Uber’s position in the world of autonomous cars is expanding, and it’s surely a giant bet on behalf of the company that their future endeavors lie in autonomous technology.
For more information about Uber’s autonomous vehicle network and what’s next in innovation, check out the latest from Uber’s website. And for all things self-driving and autonomous delivery, take a look at Avride’s newly launched website.
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