Yandex is said to be Russia’s version of Google, who is now following in the footsteps of its American contemporary to make a self-driving shuttle. The autonomous shuttle project will take place in collaboration with the Russian automotive company Kamaz.
Russia’s leading search engine Yandex has decided to invest on something that drives itself, but instead of making a self-driving car (perhaps that’s become old-school), the Russian tech company is making a self-driving shuttle. The planned minibus will be a collaborative project with Russian truck maker Kamaz and NAMI.
ALSO CHECK OUT: CHINA UNVEILS TRANSIT ELEVATED BUS THAT TRAVELS OVER CARS
NAMI is a government-funded research organization invested in automotive industry. Daimler is also part of this project who is separately developing an autonomous public transport vehicle. Just like USA’s Google, Russia’s Yandex is going to help out on the vision with its expertise artificial intelligence, speech recognition, and other tech resources.
Reportedly, NAMI’s version of the autonomous shuttle would accommodate up to 12 passengers with a top speed of 200 km/h (124 mph). It will enter testing stage next year. This futurist self-driving shuttle is not a completely novel idea. A functional self-driving shuttle called ‘Ollie’ is already operational in Washington DC, featuring almost the same specifications.
