Yandex Blog

The outbreak of COVID-19 is upending the lives of billions of people around the world. This situation has called on individuals and organizations across the globe to do their part to help communities everywhere. Now more than ever, people are turning to connected, intelligent services to help them overcome this uncertain time. Here at Yandex, we’re working to adapt our tools that help consumers and businesses navigate the online and offline world for the current reality. Even as our community of over 10,000 team members transitions to working from home, we’re diligently working on finding solutions that will help people during these challenging times. 

Yandex Information and Tools on COVID-19

Access to accurate and reliable information is key to how people tackle the COVID-19 outbreak. As one of the top global search engines, Yandex is committed to ensuring we can help provide users with useful and accurate information. 

We’ve created a simple, easy to understand platform for all things related to the coronavirus. When searching for “coronavirus” or related keywords on Yandex.ru, our search page presents users with a panel summarizing all information on the virus in one place. The coronavirus dashboard includes symptoms, how to protect one’s self and others, statistics on the outbreak, the latest news, and more. 

We’ve included a series of recommendations from the World Health Organization, and we also present expert responses to commonly asked questions via our Yandex.Q community question-and-answer service. The blue concentric circles are an easy way for users to identify the information we’ve verified with health experts, including the WHO, Russia’s Ministry of Health, doctors, and more.  

Our mapping team introduced a map for Russian speakers that will help them better track the COVID-19 outbreak globally. The map includes statistics within cities and regions to help users remain informed of the cases in their local communities, as well as cases in other countries. We source information for the map from a variety of sources, including the WHO, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, China’s National Health Commission, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, and more. 

We are also working on integrating our coronavirus search portal within Alice, our intelligent assistant.

Online Education Tools

Beginning on March 30th, we are adding remote learning tools to Yandex.Textbook, our free online education platform currently used by 22,000 primary schools across Russia. Teachers can hold live sessions, post homework assignments, and receive feedback from students. Students and teachers will be able to communicate with one another via chat and voice messages.  

In collaboration with the Center for Pedagogical Excellence, we will also launch a fully online, freely available school for students in grades 5-11. Teachers will conduct lessons via our streaming services and Yandex.Tutor, an online task management service for courses. Some of Moscow's leading teachers will teach the classes using curriculums based on national standardized exams. To best replicate families' typical school-year schedules, we will host the lessons during normal school hours.

Our new distance education options join existing remote learning initiatives, such as our Coursera specialisations in machine learning. We encourage everyone to continue to rely on online learning tools throughout this period.   

Yandex Mobility Services Safety and Updates

Beyond providing trusted information, we've also taken steps across our mobility products and services to better serve people impacted by COVID-19 and prevent the spread of the virus. As day-to-day life adapts to the new realities imposed by the coronavirus outbreak, there's been an increase in demand for courier-delivered goods. Yandex is proud to provide these services and retool them for higher demand, but we're also taking steps to ensure the safety of our couriers and users. Some of the actions we're taking to adjust our services to the current environment include:

 Sanitizing

• Yandex.Taxi is taking steps to minimize the spread of contagions, like encouraging the use of cashless payments only, establishing stricter cleaning guidelines for drivers, and setting up central cleaning locations for vehicles in certain cities.
• Cleaning staff for our car-sharing service, Yandex.Drive, are more thoroughly cleaning vehicles with extra strength, antiseptic disinfectant. 
• We are supplying Yandex.Drive vehicles with antiseptic wipes. 
• Within Yandex Self-Driving, we're using disinfectant to clean our autonomous vehicles.

 Safety for Drivers and Couriers

• We've established a fund to support drivers and couriers affected by COVID-19 across Yandex.Taxi, Yandex.Eats, and Yandex.Lavka, our grocery delivery service. The fund will support those who contract COVID-19 and drivers who are in contact with an infected person and must self-quarantine. 
• Guidance on the safe delivery of food and driving for couriers and drivers, along with quizzes and regular updates as the situation evolves.
• Couriers can access cleaning materials in support offices.
• We’ve set up locations in Moscow where drivers can undergo a medical check before beginning their shift, including measuring temperature, blood pressure, and a telemedicine chat with a doctor.

Delivery Service Updates

• Yandex.Taxi will soon begin delivering over-the-counter medications from pharmacies with the recent introduction of legislation to enable this.
• Yandex.Eats has simplified the procedure for restaurants to join the service.

Yandex Online Entertainment to Pass the Time During COVID-19

Besides the above changes, we’re happy to continue offering free services that can help people find ways to enjoy their time at home more.  Our streaming service provides series, movies, live TV, and cartoons in addition to sports and cultural programs. Users can also listen to a free version of Yandex.Music and interact with Alice to get the latest news, play games, and have some friendly conversation at home.

We understand this is a challenging time for people everywhere, not just among our users and the Yandex community.  We will continue finding ways to adapt our services to best assist people during the coronavirus pandemic, and we are happy to help people through this crisis in whatever ways we can.

For International Women’s Day, we recognize the outstanding achievements of women everywhere. Today more than ever, women are creating change. And at Yandex, we want to extend an extra appreciation to our female community members creating change.

As part of our reflection for International Women’s Day 2020, we are sharing insights from just a small portion of our expansive community of outstanding women – women who drive for Yandex.Taxi.

As our ecosystem of intelligent products and services has grown, we have come to operate services that not only help users navigate their daily routines but have created new job opportunities as well.  Our ride-hailing service Yandex.Taxi, which works with third-party transportation carriers, has expanded to hundreds of thousands of drivers, and tens of thousands of those drivers are women.

In some countries where we operate Yandex.Taxi and our international brand, Yango, such as Finland, it may not surprise a passenger to get picked up by a woman. Still, in places like Russia, Armenia, or Uzbekistan the industry is heavily dominated by male drivers, and it’s been very rare for women to take up such an occupation – until recently.

Times are changing in the transportation industry with the introduction of on-demand services and other innovations. Flexible dynamics have encouraged more women into new roles and opportunities to work for themselves. Working as taxi drivers doesn’t come without challenges, but in talking to some of the female drivers, we learned more about their stories creating change in their lives and the taxi industry.  We’re thrilled to share their experiences in honor of all women who are committed to advancing their professions, harnessing their independence, and improving the world around them.

Olga in Yekaterinburg, Russia, decided to start driving a taxi after finding her age was a barrier to employment elsewhere.  

“I have a higher education teaching degree. At first, I worked as a physical education teacher and then as a business trader for 15 years but eventually I was ready to move on.  I wanted to find a salaried job, so at age 51 I entered the labor market. The first time I interviewed for a position I was rejected because of my age. They said I was too old.  I thought it was a mistake but when it happened the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth time, I realized that there was a pattern. I told employers that I had the required experience, but I was often told, ‘no, we don’t need you,’ or they offered me an alternative job with a low salary.”

“One day, after yet another interview, I called a taxi to take me home.  I told the driver about my difficulty finding a job, and he asked, ‘Can you drive a car?’ I told him, ‘Yes, I can.’ He suggested that I try working as a taxi driver. So I decided I would.  It was challenging at first and I reassured myself that this was a temporary job but as time went on, I became a better navigator. For over three years now, I’ve been working as a taxi driver.”

For Noribic of Almaty, Kazakhstan, driving for Yandex.Taxi offers her the flexibility to work when she wants while still having time to raise her children.

“For more than five years, I was an economist, but I couldn’t adhere to a strict workday schedule. I have three children, and in the morning they need to be taken to study club, then to school at lunchtime, and in the evening they must be taken home.  During the downtime from their schedules, I now work as a taxi driver; it's my hobby. I enjoy being independent."

Irina in Moscow found that being a taxi driver is an excellent way for her to have extra income by working at off-hours, all while having the opportunity to show the men in her family that a woman can work in a male-dominated field.

“This job is not the only source of income for me; I also rent an apartment. I'm a night owl, so I begin driving in the evening, around 5:00 pm. I love working at night when there are no traffic jams — I sometimes work until 2:00 am or 4:00 am and drive 12-15 trips per shift.  Passengers are often surprised that their driver is a woman.”

“My family still hasn't entirely accepted my job. My husband is a very ambitious man, and he thinks I got a job to spite him. ‘The wife is the driver!’  He asks me not to advertise it too much and tells his friends I’m writing a book. My three sons were also shy about it at first. But I’m not offended, and I’m trying to convince them - I really like my work.”

We’re proud that Yandex.Taxi is in a position to help empower women with a job that offers a unique level of flexibility.  Not only that, but we love that our female drivers are helping change perceptions of who a taxi driver can be, and what a woman can do, in many of the countries served by Yandex.Taxi.  To all female trailblazers everywhere, thank you for your inspiration, commitment, and change. Congratulations on all you are achieving big and small! Happy International Women’s Day 2020!

Yandex.Taxi began as an on-demand transportation service in Moscow and today it operates an expansive ride-hailing business in 16 countries; a restaurant delivery service, Yandex.Eats; a meal-kit delivery service, Yandex.Chef; and an advanced self-driving car program.  As the business continues to grow, we’re excited to announce the appointment of Yevgeny Senderov as Chief Financial Officer of Yandex.Taxi.

Yevgeny brings over twenty years of experience in finance to Yandex.Taxi.  He joins the Yandex.Taxi team after nine years at VTB Capital, one of Russia’s leading investment banks, where for the last three years he served as Managing Director in the Private Equity and Special Situations Group.  While at VTB Capital, Yevgeny developed software and system integration companies, and businesses in retail and food tech, ranging from startups to large corporations.  At VTB Capital, he participated in a number of companies’ listings, including EPAM Systems, Luxoft, and Lenta.  Previously, Yevgeny served as Vice President of the Alfa Capital Partners, and prior to that, he started his career as an investment banking analyst at Credit Suisse bank.  

Yevgeny also served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Burger King Russia and President and COB of Russ Outdoor, one of Russia's largest outdoor advertising operators.  Yevgeny holds a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Chicago.  

"We are excited to welcome Yevgeny to our team,” says the CEO of Yandex.Taxi, Tigran Khudaverdyan.  “His vast experience and knowledge, alongside his expertise in private equity, will improve our financial discipline and capital allocation decisions."

"In just seven years,” says Yevgeny Senderov, “Yandex.Taxi has grown from a small startup to a multibillion-dollar tech company with a number of innovative business lines.  I am honored to join the team leading this impressive growth, and I look forward to applying my knowledge and experience to help the company reach even more impressive heights.”

At the beginning of 2018, the start of the second year of our self-driving program, we graduated from closed-track testing to autonomous driving on the public roads of Moscow.  Since then, we have made significant progress operating on the public streets of Russia, the United States, and Israel.  Here’s a look at our progress in the last year since we made our public debut. 

Public Roads & Winter Weather 

A year ago, in February 2018, we advanced our self-driving operation from closed test tracks to the public streets of Moscow.  The car successfully navigated the snow-covered roads of the city's Khamovniki district with a safety engineer in the driver's seat, managing pedestrians and traffic in fully autonomous mode.  As we continued operating the vehicles against public driving conditions in Moscow, the world’s second most congested city, we continued to fine-tune our software on features such as smoother stops and changing lanes on busier roads. 

Long Distance Drives

In the summer of 2018, we began testing our self-driving car for long-distance highway travel.   Most notably, during our testing, our vehicle completed a 780 kilometer (485 miles) trip on a federal highway from Moscow to Kazan.  Our self-driving car completed nearly the entire 11-hour ride (99%) in autonomous mode.  City traffic tests the car against more challenging conditions, but as we advance to the future of autonomous systems for public transportation and cargo shipping, long-distance travel will be an essential part of the future of self-driving.   

Robo-Taxi Programs

In August, we launched Europe’s first autonomous ride-hailing service in the tech hub of Innopolis, Russia.  Within a few months, we expanded the service to the Skolkovo district of Moscow.  This landmark achievement marked our first step integrating self-driving cars into Yandex’s ride-hailing service and is the first service of its kind in Europe with no one behind the driver’s wheel and a safety engineer in just the passenger seat.  The program serves as a critical early step in the proliferation of self-driving technology, as we see the general public embrace the technology for their daily routines.  To date, we have provided over 2,300 robo-taxi passenger rides between the two service locations, and the service has continued operating throughout the winter months.

Scalability & International Expansion

By the end of 2018, we started testing the scalability of our vehicles in new international driving environments.  In December 2018, the self-driving team spent two weeks retrofitting a car and two weeks mapping the public roads of Las Vegas in preparation for demos during CES 2019.   In addition to mapping the area, the team made small adjustments to the system to enable it to operate in a new setting - from setting the legal speed limits to adjusting for new dynamics such as yellow traffic lights that indicate yield in the US but an out-of-order light in Russia.  During the week of CES, we provided dozens of rides in our self-driving car with just a safety engineer in the front passenger seat. 

At the same time, we continued our expansion outside Russia to Tel Aviv, Israel, where the unique driving challenges there include narrow streets and heavy motorcycle and moped traffic. 

The Road Ahead

Since first venturing out to the public streets of Moscow last February, our self-driving program has reached many significant milestones in a short time.  We are proud of the team who drove the program to new heights and thankful to the members of the public who have been participating in the journey as well.  We look forward to even more achievements in 2019, as we continue in our goal of making autonomous vehicles an everyday part of people's lives.

To learn more about our work and opportunities to join our self-driving team, read on here.

Last week, Yandex’s self-driving car navigated the public streets of Las Vegas during CES 2019 without an operator behind the steering wheel.  Our car safely delivered dozens of passengers to and from the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino to demonstrate the latest advancements of our self-driving technology and the scalability to operate the vehicle against new traffic conditions in Las Vegas.

Starting in late November, the Yandex team retrofitted a Toyota Prius with an array of radars, lidars, and cameras that interpret the world around the car.  Radars are located in the front and rear bumpers, the lidars are on the roof, and five cameras mounted around the car capture 360-degree video.  The combined sensors can identify objects within a 200-meter radius of the car.  This incoming information is processed by the custom-built computer that sits in the trunk of the car, which runs on proprietary software built by our team.

Passengers could see the car processing the world around it on two tablets, one mounted on the dashboard by the safety engineer and the other on the center console for rear passengers.  Passengers were able to track the car in real-time on a high-definition map of the streets it was traversing, including the planned and possible routes of the vehicle in addition to 3D models of vehicles, pedestrians, and dynamic icons of traffic lights.

The passengers experienced the car yielding to cars and pedestrians on unprotected left-hand turns, changing lanes on a four-lane road at the 45 mph speed limit, and reading traffic lights with the onboard cameras.  While we provided rides on predefined routes to demonstrate the car against different challenges, the car could travel between any two points in the mapped area.

Each ride we provided to passengers proved to be a unique experience and another important step towards the development of self-driving technologies.  Thanks to everyone on the Yandex team and all of our first passengers in the U.S. who helped make our self-driving car’s first drives outside Russia a resounding success!  We look forward to doing more with our self-driving technologies in the U.S. in the future.

Check out a video below of tech YouTuber MKBHD taking a driverless ride in our self-driving car during CES 2019.

Yandex is operating a self-driving car in Las Vegas with just a safety engineer in the front passenger seat (NVO Mode).  The company will be providing demonstration rides of its self-driving car on the public streets of Las Vegas starting from the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino during CES 2019.

To prepare for CES, the team acquired a car locally and retrofitted it with the necessary sensors and hardware for self-driving operation.  The team then used Yandex’s mapping technologies to build a custom HD map of the neighborhood around the hotel. Yandex’s proprietary self-driving software stack was then localized and optimized to the driving conditions of Las Vegas.  The transformation of both the car and the software was completed in only one month. The route tests the Yandex self-driving car against unprotected left-hand turns, pedestrians, and busy traffic with speeds up to 45 mph.

Las Vegas was the first test location outside of Russia for Yandex’s self-driving car unit, and in addition to the CES demo, Yandex recently announced it is expanding its self-driving tests to Israel.  

“We are excited to show our self-driving achievements to the CES community here in the US.  After first building and testing vehicles in Moscow, the world’s second most congested city, and launching a successful robo-taxi program that is operating throughout the winter in two cities, coming to CES was a great opportunity to test our technology’s scalability and flexibility in a new environment.  Similar to our robo-taxi program, our self-driving car in Las Vegas is operational with just a safety engineer in the front passenger seat, which is an important step in advancing our technology.”  Dmitry Polishchuk, Head of Yandex Self-Driving.

Yandex first began working on driverless technology in early 2017, combining our expertise in machine learning, navigation, mapping tools, and cloud technologies.  In May 2017, Yandex introduced its first prototype. Currently, Yandex is testing cars against all weather conditions across three countries and operating robo-taxi services in two cities in Russia.  The two robo-taxi locations have delivered over 2000 passenger rides with just a safety engineer in the front passenger seat.

Today we are excited to announce that Yandex has obtained permission from the Israeli Ministry of Transportation and Road Safety to operate its self-driving car on public roads. The car is now officially approved to operate in autonomous mode with a safety engineer in the driver’s seat.  Following extensive public road testing in Russia and most recently, in the US, this new location marks the third country where Yandex is testing its self-driving vehicles.  Yandex is also one of the first companies to operate self-driving cars in Israel.

After launching in other locations, Yandex is excited to operate in Israel, where there are several favorable dynamics that make it a prime location to continue developing our self-driving technologies.  In addition to being a leading tech hub with high-quality roads, Israeli cities have a highly developed infrastructure that makes the country an ideal location for testing.

“We are excited to start testing our self-driving technologies abroad to demonstrate that they’re scalable, universal and can manage various geography and traffic conditions. Israel became an obvious choice as one of the first countries outside Russia where we wanted to expand our testing.  We’re honored to be one of the first companies in the country to receive a permit to operate self-driving vehicles.  Yandex has been developing innovative machine learning technologies and providing leading transportation services for many years.  Our self-driving car is an amazing example of our achievements in AI and we were proud to use it as a learning tool at Yandex’s Y-Data School in Tel Aviv.  Israel is home to top IT professionals and many important autonomous vehicle partners.  By operating our vehicle in Israel, we will be able to work more efficiently with these companies and with the local talent.  We look forward to more innovation and collaboration with the community here,” says Dmitry Polischuk, Head of Yandex Self-Driving Car project.

The Yandex self-driving team first began working on our driverless technology in 2016, combining our expertise in machine learning, navigation, mapping tools, and cloud technologies.  In May of 2017, we introduced our prototype and since then have rapidly advanced to driving on the busy streets of Moscow and our most recent fully autonomous ride-hailing launches in the tech-focused cities of Innopolis and Skolkovo.  Between the two locations, Yandex self-driving vehicles provided over 2000 passenger trips and counting!  In launching those services, Yandex self-driving became the first service in Europe to offer autonomous ride-hailing.  For the past month, our team has also been testing on the public roads of Las Vegas, Nevada in preparation for Yandex’s public demonstration at CES in January 2019.

The launch in Israel will further test our scalability and expand our capabilities in new environments.  In the last year in Israel, Yandex also opened up a Tel Aviv branch of the Yandex School of Data Analysis to offer a one year career advancement program in machine learning and launched our Yandex.Music AI-powered music streaming application.  Most recently, this month our ride-hailing service, Yandex.Taxi, launched in Gush Dan and several other regions of Israel under the new international brand, Yango.  Introduced in 2011, Yandex.Taxi currently operates in 15 countries across CIS, the EU, and Africa and it runs the R&D division for Yandex self-driving.

Yandex is excited to announce that we have received a license to operate our self-driving car in the state of Nevada.  With this autonomous vehicle license, we will be demoing our self-driving car on the public roads of Las Vegas during the week of CES 2019.  From Monday, January 7th until Friday, January 11th, we will be providing rides in our self-driving car for the first time outside of Russia.

The autonomous vehicle license in Nevada creates another opportunity to continue to advance our self-driving capabilities in new environments.  In February 2018, the car began navigating the snowy streets of Moscow, and in late August we launched Europe’s first autonomous ride-hailing service in the tech hub of Innopolis, Russia.  In October, Yandex.Taxi’s autonomous ride-hailing service expanded to the Skolkovo district of Moscow, and between the two locations we have delivered over 1,750 rides in just a few months.  The autonomous ride-hailing service is operating with a safety engineer in the passenger seat.

We look forward to seeing all of our passengers at CES 2019 and sharing more about developing the Las Vegas vehicle and its testing ahead of CES.

At Yandex, we have had the opportunity to play a major role in the way Russian users adopt new technologies and services to better navigate their daily routines.  Our expansion into food tech is no exception.  In February, we launched the Yandex.Eats food delivery service, which connects users with restaurants in a growing number of cities across Russia.  Yandex.Eats is helping to add new and innovative ways for Russian consumers to enjoy their meals.

In the past decade, the restaurant industry in Russia has grown to offer people more variety and better customer service.  Aside from pizza and sushi, food delivery has been rather limited compared to other markets.  The recent introduction of mobile apps for food delivery marked a revolutionary development for the dining experience in Russia, where the market for food delivery apps is still nascent.

Yandex.Eats offers customers an easy and efficient method for receiving food delivery from nearby restaurants within 30-35 minutes.  Customers select the address for delivery either on the Yandex.Eats website or in the mobile app for iOS or Android, which will show all participating restaurants.  Users can then also narrow their options by the type of cuisine, ranging from burgers, sushi and pizza to dumplings and seafood.  After ordering and paying with cash, card, or Apple Pay, users can track their deliveries in real time through the app.

We launched Yandex.Eats in February 2018 after acquiring the service Foodfox and following the merger of Yandex.Taxi with Uber’s local business, which included Uber Eats.  Originally offering users choices from over 2,000 restaurants in downtown Moscow, Yandex.Eats has expanded vastly to now offer users options from more than 6,500 restaurants in 24 cities, with another 10 cities in testing.  Yandex.Eats works with local restaurants as well as international brands such as McDonald's, Shake Shack, TGI Friday’s, and most recently, Papa John’s. Some of our partnerships, such as those with McDonald’s and Papa John’s, are exclusive, so Yandex.Eats is the sole delivery partner for these chains.

Maxim Firsov, the CEO of Yandex.Eats, notes how our food delivery service has expanded and how we are improving it with our machine learning expertise.

Yandex.Eats has expanded quickly since its launch, more than tripling its restaurants, adding over 20 new cities, and now receiving eight times as many orders.  One of the key features of Yandex.Eats is the delivery speed, which is critical for customers.  Our team optimizes delivery times by using Yandex’s machine learning, maps and data analysis technologies.  The Yandex.Eats platform integrates our logistics optimization algorithms and the best routing tools in Russia to predict demand and calculate optimal routes for our delivery teams.

Yandex.Eats has been experimenting with “dark kitchens” in Moscow to provide users with a greater variety of choices.  Dark kitchens are popup kitchens where an average of three or more of our partners can prepare food for delivery using our couriers.  Dark kitchens are operated by Yandex.Eats in areas where restaurants are rare, allowing us to cater to neighborhoods which have traditionally had limited food options.

Yandex is excited to be expanding our food tech services, as food preparation and recipes are one of the most popular topics in our search engine, with 100 million monthly queries.  In addition to Yandex.Eats, Yandex recently acquired a daily deal and coupon aggregator, Edadeal, which is often used to find deals for grocery stores.  Yandex has also announced (in Russian) that it will be providing users with a meal kit delivery service through the acquisition of Food Party (Partiya Edy).

Yandex.Eats and Edadeal are available for users in cities across Russia, and Food Party is currently available in Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

On August 28, 2018, Yandex.Taxi unveiled Europe's first autonomous ride-hailing service in the tech hub of Innopolis, Russia. Today we are excited to announce that, in just two months, our self-driving cars in Innopolis have completed 1,000 autonomous rides with passengers!

We are pleased to have users in Innopolis trying out our self-driving technology and playing a crucial role in our journey to perfect our autonomous ride-hailing service.  On an average day, our self-driving service in Innopolis makes about 20 trips and the average duration of each trip is 10 minutes. The cars provide rides to participating residents of Innopolis with a safety engineer in the front passenger seat.

The public debut of Yandex’s autonomous ride-hailing service has enabled our team to refine the service with rider feedback.  In honor of reaching the milestone, we wanted to share impressions from a few of our riders about their commutes in Innopolis.

“The first time I took an autonomous ride, it was very exciting but a little nerve-wracking. Yet by now I've made about 10 trips.  Now the feeling of an autonomous trip is the same as a regular taxi.” says Adil Amirov, a student who often uses the service to go to the grocery store when the weather is bad. “The only difference between a self-driving car and a car with a driver is the speed. The self-driving car does not exceed the speed limit - probably for safety purposes.”

Software developer Alexey Bandura told our team that his first trip was to get bread at the store.  In reflecting on his first trip, Alexey told us, “The trip went well, though it was unusual to see that there wasn’t a driver. I wasn’t afraid of anything because the safety engineer was also in the car.” Alexey now takes the self-driving car once or twice a day to run errands and says it saves him time.

One student, Denis Chernikov, told our team that he makes plans with friends to ride in the self-driving car. “We meet and go together to one of the pick-up locations. So I have ridden in the self-driving car more than 10 times.”  Denis also notes that “it’s very impressive that a machine comes so quickly and manages all the driving maneuvers itself.  It’s almost like a perfect driver is behind the wheel.”

“I ride in the self-driving car once a week - to the medical center or the store, and occasionally to the technology park to pick up mail,” says student Pavel Nikulin.  “I haven’t experienced any dangerous situations on the road but there was one funny scenario.  Once the self-driving car couldn’t park, because the other cars had parked illegally and the car couldn’t find a spot to park.”  Pavel says the self-driving experience is normal for him now and he would feel safe without a safety engineer in the car.

Since revealing our self-driving car in May 2017, we have made continued progress towards our goal to develop a Level 5 self-driving car.  As users in Innopolis were taken around town in self-driving cars, we expanded our autonomous ride-hailing service to the Moscow region in October, where users in the Skolkovo district can now order an autonomous taxi.  Back in February, we began making regular successful trips with our self-driving car in winter road conditions in Moscow.

We look forward to providing more autonomous rides to passengers and are thankful to everyone who has taken part in this experience so far!