Yandex and Uber yesterday announced agreements to spin off their self-driving vehicle business from Yandex.Taxi, the taxi-hailing and food tech joint venture they formed three years ago. The spin-off, dubbed ‘Yandex Self Driving Group B.V.’ or ‘Yandex SDG,’ will be directly owned by Yandex and Uber.
The NASDAQ-listed Russian Internet giant will invest $150 million in the new company, on top of the $65 million it already invested cumulatively so far. Yandex will further increase its stake in Yandex SDG to 73% by acquiring a portion of Uber’s shares. As a result, Uber will own 19% while 8% will be offered to Yandex SDG management and employees.
Yesterday’s announcement confirmed plans aired last year. Subject to customary closing conditions, the transaction is expected to be completed in the next few weeks.
Among the global leaders
Three years after it unveiled its first self-driving cars, Yandex now claims to be among the the world’s top three companies for the number of miles driven by automated vehicles.
In July, the company’s fleet of 130 vehicles passed 4 million miles in three countries – Russia, Israel and the United States – up from 2 million in February 2020 and 1 million in October 2019. Global market leader Waymo, a project run by Google’s parent company Alphabet, hit 20 million miles driven on public roads in January 2020.
Yandex has also developed a delivery robot, ‘Yandex.Rover,’ to deliver small and medium-sized packages. “This robot could help to automate last-mile delivery of goods within our ecosystem and beyond, as well as to offer a sustainable way to deliver food and goods,” explains Yandex, which is developing large e-commerce platforms.
“We’ve been developing a technology that can be applied to various types of vehicles and that is suitable for different road, traffic and weather conditions around the world,” said Dmitry Polishchuk, CEO of Yandex SDG.
“There is still a lot to be done to apply this technology to ride-hailing, food delivery, ecommerce, and many more adjacent categories in the longer-term. The creation of a new company, with significant support from Yandex, positions us well for the further acceleration of our development and to achieve our goal of creating a safe and efficient transportation ecosystem.”
According to a UBS study from last year, Yandex is likely to enjoy a monopoly in the field of unmanned vehicles in Russia, and these activities could be valued at up to $7.7 billion by 2030.
