New Self-Driving Taxis, Bots Testing in Austin

A new name has emerged testing autonomous vehicles alongside some of self-driving tech’s biggest names in Austin.

However, while Avride may be unfamiliar compared with more established operators such as Waymo and Amazon’s Zoox, it does already have quite a lot of experience to call on.

Because in a previous life, Avride was essentially the Yandex Self-Driving Group, which was born in Russia in 2017 and carried out much of its testing there.

Yandex initially gained prominence in Russia as a search engine, but similar to Google in the West, it branched into self-driving, and by the end of 2021 its cars and delivery bots had racked up plenty of mileage there.

However, February 2022 saw Russia invade Ukraine and the company become a pariah for many international businesses, which caused its parent company, which is based in the Netherlands, to pull the plug. 

Fast forward to February 2024 and the Self-Driving Group was sold, alongside other Yandex operations, as the parent company restructured. Now the self-driving unit has re-emerged as part of the Nebius Group, and rebranded as Avride.

While Nebius Group’s work centers on AI infrastructure and cloud platforms from its headquarters in Amsterdam, Avride has based itself in the Texas city and is again looking to develop its self-driving taxis and delivery solutions. As well as Austin, where 50 employees are currently sited, it has offices in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Tel Aviv, Israel; Seoul, South Korea and Dubai UAE.

Related:Waymo Launches Driverless Taxi Service in Austin

While ride hailing and bots remain its key focus, there has been some evolution from the Yandex days. 

The Hyundai Sonatas it had used latterly have been replaced by electric Hyundai IONIQ 5 models, which are no stranger to autonomy having been used, for example, by Motional in Las Vegas.

The IONIQ 5s use a suite of sensors including Lidar and radar, plus intelligent navigation, 3D mapping and a high-grade compute to deliver automated functionality.

Interestingly, Avride has opted to use its own proprietary camera and lidar tech, rather than third party offerings, with the lidar claimed to be able to provide a range of more than 984 feet.

The 2.8 foot-long delivery bot, meanwhile, also includes lidar, cameras, ultrasonic sensors and a powerful compute unit, plus can run for up to 12 hours on a single charge in extreme conditions including snow or extreme heat. Carrying capacity is six 12-inch size pizzas and three bottles of water. It’s ready to scale immediately.

And of course, while the presence in Austin is new, Avride does have plenty of experience to call on in its previous guise. It says it’s accrued 10 million real-world miles already, including tests in the U.S. in Ann Arbor and Detroit. 

Related:Amazon Zoox Self-Driving Taxi to Test in Miami, Austin