Page 165 - RusRPTJan23

Yandex is the only Russian drone developer that actively tested its developments abroad until early 2022. More specifically, in the US and Israel. Since the summer of 2020, cars with self-driving equipment from a Russian company have been driving around Ann Arbor, Michigan, a university city of 120,000 people. And since the summer of 2021, Yandex.Rovers courier robots have been delivering orders from the Grubhub service on the campuses of American universities - and this was already a commercial project.
But it all ended in just one day. Immediately after the start of the war, Grubhub was asked: “Don’t write to us from the Yandex address anymore,” a source close to the company told The Bell. A week later, it became known that all tests in the United States were suspended, the contract with Grubhub was terminated. In addition, almost immediately after the start of the war, Yandex had serious problems with components for drones. American Nvidia, the main supplier of video processors, without which a drone simply cannot be made, refused to work with Russian companies, according to The Bell's source in the market.
However, the company received the main blow literally on the second day of the war - February 25th. “On February 15, Yandex’s drones signed an agreement of intent with a major automaker, which was supposed to enter Yandex Self Driving Group based on its valuation of $5bn,” said a source close to the company. “Due diligence was already underway, and on February 25 they sent a letter that they could not continue negotiations.” According to two interlocutors of The Bell in the market, we are talking about the largest South Korean automaker Hyundai, a longtime partner of Yandex in drones. Since 2019, the Russian company has already signed an agreement with a subsidiary of Hyundai Mobis - but then it was a small experiment. Now the South Korean company was ready to cooperate with Yandex in earnest - but these plans were not destined to come true.
Yandex did not respond to a question about the preparation of this deal. But they promised that the company will continue to develop unmanned technologies. “There are now about 160 vehicles in the unmanned fleet of Yandex, they have traveled a total of 23mn km. The company plans to develop the fleet and continue testing,” the company said.
With "Yandex" there is at least some clarity. Little is known about what is happening inside the main Russian competitor, SberAvtoTech, now. The news was only that this year the bank tested its cars in St. Petersburg, but, apparently, it was about small tests in one area of the city. In addition, Sber drones continue to travel around Moscow. The bank (just like Yandex) has a closed service for employees that allows you to drive a drone to one of the Sberbank offices, but we are talking about one short route from the Technopark metro station to the ZIL MCC. Drones also drive around the territory of SberUniversity near Moscow.
165 RUSSIA Country Report January 2023 www.intellinews.com