Uber Expands into Robotaxis and Deliveries with Former Yandex Self-Driving Unit Partnership

Uber has expanded its roster of autonomous vehicle partners by entering into a multiyear agreement with Avride, the company formerly known as Yandex Self-Driving Group. This partnership allows Uber customers to take rides and accept deliveries from Avride's autonomous vehicles, marking another step in Uber’s ambitious goal of becoming a hub for self-driving technology worldwide. Starting this week, Uber customers in Austin, Texas, will be able to receive Uber Eats deliveries via Avride’s autonomous six-wheeled sidewalk robots. The partnership is set to expand later this year to Dallas, Texas, and Jersey City, New Jersey, with the possibility of Avride's autonomous vehicles providing rides to Uber customers in Dallas by 2025. Avride already operates its delivery robots internationally, including in South Korea.

Yandex, the predecessor of Avride, was originally founded in Russia in 1997 and quickly grew to dominate the Russian online search market. From its inception, the company harbored aspirations of expanding its reach into the U.S. market, a goal that was partially realized in 2009 when Yandex opened Yandex Labs in Palo Alto, California, just a short distance from Google’s headquarters. Yandex sought to tap into Silicon Valley talent, recruiting engineers to keep the company aligned with the latest technological advancements.

In 2017, Yandex’s focus on autonomous vehicles began to intensify after its ride-hailing division, Yandex Taxi, acquired Uber’s business in Russia. The acquisition led to the formation of a joint venture between Yandex and Uber, with several Uber executives taking seats on Yandex’s board. By 2018, Yandex claimed to have launched the "world’s first robo-taxi business" in Moscow, showcasing the company’s autonomous vehicle capabilities. It demonstrated its fully driverless technology at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas and later began testing its self-driving cars in Ann Arbor, Michigan. That same year, Yandex expanded into autonomous delivery services, launching a robot delivery pilot with Grubhub and exploring the possibility of extending the service to 250 additional college campuses across the U.S.

However, the company’s operations were derailed by the geopolitical tensions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Western sanctions and other international business pressures led Yandex to suspend its U.S. operations and lay off employees. Uber severed its ties with Yandex by selling its stake in the joint venture and withdrawing its executives from Yandex’s board. Other U.S. partnerships also dissolved in the wake of the invasion; Grubhub canceled its contract with Yandex, and privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo cut ties with the Russian company.

In early 2023, Yandex Self-Driving rebranded as Avride after its parent company, now known as Nebius, sold off its Russian businesses in a $5.2 billion deal, fully severing ties with its origins in Russia. Avride is now headquartered in Austin, Texas, where it seeks to reinvigorate its autonomous vehicle ambitions.

The new partnership with Uber is a significant move for Avride, which is looking to reestablish itself in the competitive autonomous vehicle market. Uber’s strategy of integrating various autonomous vehicle companies into its platform continues to gain momentum, with Avride joining the ranks of other partners like Waymo, Motional, and WeRide for self-driving cars, as well as Serve, Cartken, and Nuro for delivery robots. Uber’s goal is to become a central hub for autonomous vehicle operations worldwide, serving as a marketplace for different companies to deploy their technology within Uber’s ride-hailing and delivery services.

This partnership signals Uber’s long-term commitment to autonomous technology and its vision of a future where autonomous vehicles play a central role in the company’s business model, while Avride seeks to make its mark as a key player in this fast-evolving industry.