Internet giant Yandex to test self-driving cars in Innopolis

INNOPOLIS, Tatarstan, Aug 28 (PRIME) -- Russian Internet company Yandex signed on Tuesday an agreement with the republic of Tatarstan, on the Volga, to launch test trips on driverless cars in the city of Innopolis.

“We have many various forms of cooperation with Tatarstan, but what we’re signing now is a true technological breakthrough, because it’s been for the first time in Europe there will be an unmanned vehicle in operation,” Yandex General Director in Russian Yelena Bunina told reporters.

Two driverless cars will daily circulate in a testing zone in Innopolis, and there will be five landing points for passengers close to the city’s key facilities. The number of cars and landing points will be raised in the future if required.

The service will be provided for free to the citizens who will agree to take part in the test.

“I’m 100% sure that it will be a usual practice in the nearest several years. Europe does not have anything like this, and it’s very important for us to master this system,” Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov said.

The Internet company started working at the technology in 2016 and its first self-driving car debuted on a Moscow road in February to drive 789 kilometers from the capital to the city of Kazan, on the Volga, in June.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in May that legal regulation of driverless transport will be provided within a year.

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